By Alli Van Roekel Nov 30th, 2015
I observed the students from my youth group walking through the Columbine Memorial, dedicated to the victims of the 1999 Columbine high school shooting. Memoirs of the slain students and faculty are etched into the stone “Ring of Remembrance” and “Wall of Healing.” We read them in silence and reflected. I wondered what was going through the minds of the youth as they read those beautiful words.
For young people, thinking about the end of life can be a stretch, but this memorial was a sobering place for all of us, realizing how quickly life can be taken from us. As we gathered as a group after our time of silence, I asked the group one question, “What do you want to be remembered for?”
This question serves as a mirror that brings us into conscious thinking about the life we are living and how we want to be remembered. Do they match up? We can go through life on auto-pilot, rarely taking the time to step back and gain perspective on where our life is headed.
Ways you can give your child a head start in the right direction:
- Give them permission to Live in their strengths: If your teen is like most people, they are more fixated on their weaknesses, instead of honing their strengths. According to Gallup research, the majority of people in the world would choose to know their weaknesses, if given the choice between their strengths and their weaknesses. This is very problematic!
- Help them discover their Missional Purpose: Some people discover this purpose at an early age and feel confident about their direction. Many people wander until they find it. Some people, on their own will never know their purpose. At Equip2Equip, we provide a comprehensive process to help people discover their unique purpose.
- Support them in aligning their life to their Missional Purpose: It’s hard to know if you are headed in the right direction, if you don’t know where you are going! We must take time to reflect on our lives and make corrections as we align our life to our mission. At Equip 2 Equip, we provide our clients with a strategic plan to live out their mission.
- Abide in Jesus: We are promised in John 15 that if we abide in Jesus, He will abide in us. We do not thrive apart from Him, so equipping your teen to know how to develop this personal relationship with Jesus will give them the confidence and comfort to move forward in life.
Questions for your teen:
What do you want to be remembered for?
What do you want to contribute to this world?
How is your life today reflecting this dream?
