Using Their God-Given Strengths

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

This week, I reflect on the second portion of the Impact Learning Center’s vision statement – using their God-given strengths.

Young people USING THEIR GOD-GIVEN STRENGTHS to make a positive and powerful difference in their world.

Max Lucado, in his book Cure For The Common Life, wonders if historically the church has misinterpreted the verse at the top of this post. As adults, many of us believe if we put kids on the right path, they will never leave it. If we fill them full of Scripture and Bible lessons and sermons, they may rebel, but they will eventually return.

Under this model, young people are empty vessels. From birth through adolescence, it is the responsibility of adults to fill youth with all the right stuff so when they reach adulthood, they are ready to fulfill their destiny in the world.

While adult-driven teaching and training of young people is certainly a piece of the puzzle, I’m not certain it is the entire puzzle. I also like this verse:

I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born.

(Isaiah 44:2)

Do young people have strengths? A better question is, do young people have spiritual gifts? Answer carefully, because if the answer is yes, it may revolutionize the field of youth ministry.

Getting back to Max Lucado, here is his interpretation of Proverbs 22:6, again taken from his book Cure For The Common Life:

The phrase “train up” descends from a root word that means to develop a thirst. Hebrew midwives awakened the thirst of a newborn by dipping a finger in the bowl of crushed dates and placing it in the baby’s mouth. To “train up,” then, means to awaken thirst.

Parents awaken thirst “in the way [the child] should go.” The small word “in” means “in keeping with” or “in cooperation with,” suggesting that babies come with preprogrammed hard drives. The American Standard Bible margins this verse with the phrase “according to his way.”

“Way” refers to a unique capacity or characteristic, whether of an eagle, a serpent, a ship, or a person. If you raise your child “in the way he should go,” you attune yourself to your child’s inherent characteristics and inborn distinctives.

God prewired your infant. He scripted your toddler’s strengths. He set your teen on a trajectory. God gave you an eighteen-year research project. Ask yourself, your spouse, and your friends: what sets this child apart? Childhood tendencies forecast adult abilities. Read them. Discern them. Affirm them. Cheerlead them. (P. 121-123)

At the Impact Learning Center, we believe that God has uniquely gifted every young person. We use this language repeatedly during our many interactions with them each day. The repetition is necessary because for many of them, the language of giftedness is a foreign language.

Many urban youth hear daily what they don’t know or can’t do. They don’t read well. They have bad attitudes. They lack social skills. They engage in destructive behaviors.

At the Impact Learning Center, they have strengths. They are gifted. God gifted them. God gifted them for a purpose. See you next week.