{"id":3509,"date":"2012-11-04T14:41:04","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T20:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=3509"},"modified":"2016-01-04T14:53:20","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T19:53:20","slug":"gchpots-parents-of-teens-gods-purposes-for-your-teenager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/04\/gchpots-parents-of-teens-gods-purposes-for-your-teenager\/","title":{"rendered":"GCH:POTs (Parents of Teens) God&#8217;s Purposes For Your Teenager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">He turns the light of dawn into darkness<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">and treads on the heights of the earth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Lord God of Heaven\u2019s Armies is his name!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Amos 4:13<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I hope you enjoyed getting to know your kids better last week. What types of questions did you ask them? How did they respond? I would love to hear all about it!<\/p>\n<p>This week, we are going to focus on preparing you and your teen for change. I know, I know\u2026. Not many people are fans of things changing, but change is imperative if you want to have a different outcome in any situation. Parenting and communication with your teenager is no different. Having five teens under my roof at the same time, I learned early on that I needed to be willing to try different approaches with each one constantly in order to bring out the best in them and our relationship.<\/p>\n<p>We all want to know our life\u2019s purpose\u2026. Don\u2019t we? Well, our teenagers are no different. In fact, what I have seen with my own kids is that every way they turn, they are even EXPECTED to know their life purpose at younger and younger ages. I\u2019m 37 and I just figured it out two years ago!<\/p>\n<p>I have always admired my oldest son, James, because he knew in kindergarten that he wanted to be a chef and has been unwavering in that goal. Straight out of high school, he went into culinary school and is now a chef! But, what I am finding, is that his focus with his God-given gifts is uncommon and most of my other kids have had thoughts swimming around in their heads like\u2026.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Why was I born?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Will my dream ever come true?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What major should I have in college?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Should I go to college?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Where do I fit in this world?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What on earth am I here for?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our society prompts us, as parents, to pray for God to bring someone or some situation into our kids\u2019 lives to encourage their kids to live more purpose-filled and significant lives beyond video games and texting. Parents want their kids to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to live with His peace and joy in their hearts. They want their kids to be self-sufficient and to live rewarding lives in and out of the home.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I have news for you. In all of my coaching, parenting, \u00a0and mentoring the one way I have found to help make all these pieces fit into place for your teenager is to help them to discover how they specifically have been wired by God with unique, God-given Gifts to make an impact on this world. I am so happy that we are on this journey together\u2026. Now let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n<p><strong>God has three purposes for your teen\u2019s life:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>To love God by belonging to Christ<\/li>\n<li>To love God by loving others<\/li>\n<li>To glorify God by fulfilling your \u201cThis I must do\u201d dream<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This week, we will be diving into these three purposes to help lay the groundwork with our teenagers. These three purposes are meant to work simultaneously in order \u00a0to unleash God\u2019s best in their life. Are you ready to get started?<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">What I need you to do the next few days is spend some time thinking and praying on how these three purposes fit into <strong>YOUR<\/strong> life. Seek the Lord on these three purposes and see what He shows you. If you can talk about how God has impacted your life in these ways, it will be much easier to relate it to your teen!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dear Lord, I thank you for every parent and adult who is reading this blog who has the desire to help bring out the very best in their teen! Thank you for putting this desire in their hearts and I pray that You will continue to strengthen them and give them Your boldness to dare to be different! Help them think outside the box in relating and communicating with their teen to help being out Your gifts in them. Thank You for this provision, Father. In Your Son\u2019s name I pray, amen &lt;3<\/p>\n<p>Blessings to you and yours,<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Megan<\/strong> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\":)\" src=\"http:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/icon_smile.gif?m=1129645325g\" \/> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:megan@girlfriendscoffeehour.com\">megan@girlfriendscoffeehour.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/megan.smidt\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/megan.smidt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sign up for one of our Online Bible Study or Fellowship Groups for Women and Teen Girls here:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/sign-up-for-girlfriends-coffee-hour-online-bible-studies\/\">http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/sign-up-for-girlfriends-coffee-hour-online-bible-studies\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven\u2019s Armies is his name! Amos 4:13 &nbsp; I hope you enjoyed getting to know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[218,258,370,422,425,436,497,692,741,742,791,860,879,994,1011,1042,1043,1156],"class_list":["post-3509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parents-2","tag-christianity","tag-conversation","tag-family","tag-gifts","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god","tag-help","tag-mission","tag-parents","tag-parents-of-teenagers","tag-prayer","tag-purpose","tag-relationships","tag-spiritual-gifts","tag-step-family","tag-teenagers","tag-teens-2","tag-youth","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-UB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29385,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions\/29385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}