Helping Teens Use Spiritual Gifts

Help Teens Identify Their Gifts

• Teens are likely to scoff at the notion that they can offer much in the way of wisdom and healing, two of the spiritual gifts listed in the Bible. Talk to your teen about what she thinks she has to offer as gifts, based on her interests, abilities and talents. Encourage her to think in terms of how she could use her wisdom and skills to help someone else. Is she a talented musician? Perhaps she could apply those talents by playing in the praise band at church or leading Christmas carols at a local senior center.

Family and Friends

• Your teen can use his gifts in the service of family members and even friends. Point out that every time he helps you carry groceries, he's using the gift of service. He can use the gift of wisdom -- for example, his experience playing baseball -- by volunteering to help coach his younger sibling's Little League team. And while most teens aren't regarded as prophets, your teen can help a close friend make important decisions about his education and extracurricular activities that will help keep him on the right path toward a positive future.

Youth Programs

• Encourage your teen to participate in volunteer or service programs through his school or church. Teens can serve as tutors or reading buddies for younger students in the local elementary school, or organize a youth group fundraiser to support a missionary overseas. Even your younger teen can use the gifts of service and mercy. For example, with the school's permission, help him set up a giving tree to collect donations of hats and mittens for the needy before winter hits. He can get other teens involved as well, by asking kids to bring a non-perishable food item as the price of admission to a school play or dance, then go together to take the food to the local food pantry. Your teen can also practice service by volunteering to work at the local food pantry or by cutting the grass for the church.

Community and Beyond

• Certain teens are good candidates for mission work at home or abroad, which provides them unparalleled opportunities to use a number of their spiritual -- and earthly -- gifts. If traveling to do mission work isn't a fit for your teen, work with him to identify needs in your community or nearby areas where he can make a contribution. If your teen athlete can't coach locally, perhaps he might organize donations of gently-used sports equipment to send to a children's home. He might travel with a group to help rebuild a tornado-damaged neighboring town, take family members with him to spend Thanksgiving serving at a soup kitchen or write letters to U.S. military personnel deployed overseas.