How To Help Your Teen Find Their Calling
We’ve been having that talk more and more with our 15 year old daughter. You know. The “What do you want to do with your life after school?” talk, which is just the more grown up version of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” talk.
Figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life is hard enough at 40 when you’ve got plenty of life under your belt, let alone when you’re a teen and just beginning. Â How do you know what you’ll be good at? How do you know what you’d like to do for the next 40+ years?
The truth is, so many people choose occupations for all the wrong reasons and they are miserable. They might chose a career because of money, parental pressure, laziness, or because it’s what their friends chose. For all these reasons, and more, many people do not choose the career path that is right for them, or what they are called to do. Most of the time, it is because they never took the time to find their calling.
We were fortunate to be introduced to a new high school curriculum called Understanding God’s Calling from Institute of Faith, Work, and Econcomics. This is a 17 week study of what a calling is and how to find yours. I found Understanding God’s Calling refreshing and was excited from the first time I read about it. As, it turns out, my daughter is excited about it, too!
Why Is This Calling Curriculum Different?
Many times in Christian circles, a calling from God only applies to work in the ministry – a pastor, a missionary, a Christian educator, or a worship leader, for example. Understanding God’s Calling realizes that God’s calling applies not only to formal ministry, but to all aspects of life – our work, our family, and our community.
Understanding God’s Calling examines the Biblical basis of a calling and how it applies to your life. We were not all created to be pastors. We might have been given the gifts to be engineers, stay-at-home-moms, waiters, doctors, or landscapers. To God, they are all the same. He needs each of us to use our gifts in different ways and in all areas of our lives. Understanding God’s Calling helps you to understand and embrace that.
My daughter is enjoying Understanding God’s Calling. Her fear, when I mentioned the idea of using this curriculum, was that it would be a dry text, would be to “preachy”, or be just ministry focused. Now that she has a few weeks under her belt, she realizes that is not the case at all  and she is looking forward to the rest of the study.
What Is In The Curriculum?
This is not your typical textbook curriculum. Understanding God’s Calling uses a guidebook containing the basis of what should be learned in each module. The main text of the course comes from the Bible, other great books, and articles.
Best Features Of Understanding God’s  Calling
- The curriculum is simple to understand with interesting, practical books and articles used to support the basic text.
- Key Ideas are given at the beginning of each module to introduce you to the concepts that will be covered.
- Optional resources are listed for those topics you want to study further.
- Study questions at the end of each module are a great review of the reading and allow for application of the scripture readings.
- Contains exercises and tests to determine your gifts.
- It relates to all areas of life.
Books Used
- The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life – Os Guinness
- Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot –Â Max Lucado
-  God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life – Gene Veith
-  How Then Should We Work? Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work –  Hugh Whelchel (Included in the curriculum at no extra cost)
- Plus additional linked articles
How To Get Understanding God’s Calling
My daughter will be working her way through the rest of the curriculum this summer. She is really enjoying the reading and can’t wait to get to the gift assessments at the end! I plan on reading through the study, as well. I’ve already read a couple of the books used in the past and really enjoyed them.
To see the curriculum for yourself, download 2 FREE lessons from Understanding God’s Calling. Through that link you will also receive 30% off your order if you decide to purchase at anytime.
Institute of Faith,Work, and Economics, also, has a Biblical Economics course for the high school level that teaches them how to make economic decisions in a God honoring way.