Helping Your Kids Follow God's Plan for Their Lives
When it comes to following God in high school and middle school, there are life-changing decisions that a kid must make. Trying to figure out how to follow God in those pivotal choices can be an immense challenge for teenagers.
Some tough decisions middle school and high school kids have to make while seeking God's will include:
Choosing friends and peer groups: Who will positively or negatively influence them?
Getting involved in extracurricular activities: What talents and gifts can they use to honor God? What activities will strengthen their faith?
Thinking about relationships and dating: How can they find a boyfriend or girlfriend who shares their faith and values?
Considering their future education and career path: What are their interests and skills that could translate into a calling or vocation?
As if the teenage years weren’t difficult enough, adding God’s will into the equation can make things very confusing at times. But, as Christian parents, one of your most important jobs is to help guide your children to find and fulfill God's plan and purpose for their lives. So, how do we do this? How can you help your kid hear from God and follow His plan for their lives instead of their own?
Here are some suggestions for how to help your kids seek and follow God's will:
Teach Them To Pray
Prayer is how we connect with God and understand what He wants us to do. It is important to teach children about prayer by sharing Bible verses on the topic, such as Matthew 7:7 which says, "Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." We should encourage our kids to pray regularly and ask God to show them the path He has laid out for their lives.
When we pray, we open our hearts to listen for God's still, small voice guiding us. Prayer allows us to build an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father as we share all aspects of our lives with Him - our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears. As children develop a habit of prayer, they will learn to recognize God's answers and direction. They will see how He guides their thoughts and opens new opportunities. They will experience the peace that comes from giving their worries and anxieties to the Lord. Most importantly, a lifestyle of prayer will root teenagers deeply in faith as they follow where God leads them.
Identify Their Gifts
God gives us certain gifts, talents, and interests to point us to His purpose for us. Work with your kids to discover their strengths, skills, and passions. This self-awareness will help them match their talents to God's calling. Romans 12:6 says, "We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us."
Your kid may be great at sports, music, or maybe they are just really smart. No matter what their talents or gifts are it is crucial that we teach teenagers how to leverage those gifts for God’s plan and purposes. If the time comes that your kid has developed new talents or gifts, it’s also important for you to let them quit old hobbies and pursue new ones.
Heroes of the Faith
Examples like David, Esther, Paul, Abraham, the disciples, and others can inspire your kids and show them what responding to God's will can look like. Discuss the stories and highlight how God used each person in a unique way. You can also discuss the ways in which many of these characters also failed to follow God at certain points and some of the consequences they faced because of that.
Set a godly Example
Live out your own calling and purpose before your kids. Let them see you reading Scripture, praying, and serving God with the gifts He's given you. Your example will do more than anything else to show them how to walk in God's will. As it states in the book of Proverbs you are called to “Train up a child in the way he should go”. What is promised if we do that is that “even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Don’t Get in the Way
Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, parents can unintentionally hinder their child's pursuit of God’s purpose for their life. I’ll never forget the moment in my senior year of high school when I told my dad, “joining the Marine Corps band is not God’s will for me.” Suddenly, my parents began encouraging me to determine what God’s purpose was. That journey led me to pursue a degree in theology and eventually work full-time in youth ministry. I can’t imagine how differently my life might have turned out had my parents not supported me in following God, even though that meant pursuing a completely different vocation than I had spent all of high school preparing for.
No matter what decision your kid is faced with, continue to encourage them to be faithful to God in those small (and massive) decisions. As I mentioned in a recent sermon it is important for us to remember that God is present with us, God has a plan for us, and God will provide. We can trust in Him because He has always been and will always be faithful to us. Staying on God’s plan for our life will help us to avoid many of the pains we could face in life. His plan is always better than our own and it is my prayer that we would guide our teenagers towards Jesus, in every step of their journey.
