08/11/2026
How do we cultivate creativity? Is obedience the enemy of creativity?
Somewhere along the way, a thought can form… that a child who is taught to listen, follow directions, and form good habits must be giving up some of their freedom and creativity.
But these things are not opposites.
At our Trash to Treasure Makerspace Camp, our students had boundaries. They practiced good habits. They learned to use tools properly, care for materials, listen to instruction, and consider the people working beside them.
And then they were free to create.
No step-by-step instructions.
No identical end products.
No “make yours look like mine.”
Just look at what they made!
Good authority doesn’t require standardization. Good boundaries can give children the security and skills they need to explore freely.
And isn’t there a picture of the Gospel here, too?
Followers of Jesus don’t believe freedom means having no authority over us. We believe true freedom is found in belonging to a good God. He doesn’t simply demand that we behave on the outside. He changes us from the inside.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.”
—Ezekiel 36:26
A hard heart made soft. A heart learning to love what is good.
We can cultivate good habits.
We can teach obedience to good authority.
We can make room for enormous creativity.
And in the middle of cardboard scraps, glue guns, inventions, mistakes, and trying again, we can make room for conversations about the Maker who made us—and the God who alone can make our hearts new.
“The old has gone. The new has come.”
