Mrs. PIE

Nurturing Your Child's Purpose

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 4 • Episode 141

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We continue our June focus on our children by discussing how to cover their future in prayer, speaking life into their purpose even when they can't see it themselves.

• Referring to Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you" - as foundation for understanding our children's divine purpose
• Warning against dampening children's spirits by projecting our own limitations onto them
• Encouraging flexibility as children grow and change their aspirations over time
• Emphasizing the importance of having conversations that affirm their value and purpose
• Supporting children's evolving dreams rather than insisting they stick with earlier interests
• Modeling healthy responses to life's challenges since children observe how we handle difficulties
• Being careful not to make conversations about children's futures about our own expectations
• Seeking healing if we never received affirmation ourselves so we don't repeat patterns
• Finding balance between encouragement and over-promising

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Speaker 1:

no-transcript, all right, so let me turn on my background. This is soaking music and it just kind of helps set the environment that I'm in for worship and teaching. And a quick shout out to those of you who are watching the replays If you're listening to the audio versions, if you're here, live good morning Dr Tracy, wherever you're watching from, if you're on to the audio versions, if you hear, live good morning Dr Tracy, wherever you're watching from, if you're on Facebook, linkedin, youtube, paradec, you know, audible, whatever, whatever you're watching or listening from. I'm so grateful that you're giving me a little bit of your time and what we're going to do, y'all, is we're going to continue where we started in the month of June, where we were focusing on our children. So it could be children, if you're parenting young children, adult children, but it's all about our kids. You could be a godparent and even a caregiver, auntie, uncle, whatever, but if you have children under your assignment right, children that you're caring for we're leaning into our kids this month of June. This month is a tricky one because if you have younger children, children who might've just graduated high school, you're trying to figure out what to do with them, their time. A lot of kids who were having a tough time trying to find a job and feeling a little bit displaced before they go into the next phase of their lives, in college. Maybe you have adult children who are in the job market or they're doing their internships and life is kind of kicking off for them, or you have young kids and you're trying to navigate how to take care of them during the summer. So there's a lot of additional stresses. If we're honest, there's a lot of additional stresses that we experience during these summer months. So that's the intention for June is to we're really just speaking life.

Speaker 1:

The last two sessions y'all I'm just going to look at my notes really quickly but the last two sessions week one we talked about speaking life, not labels, and we talked about how our words shape how our kids see themselves and their future, the words that we use. We can either heal them or uplift them or guide them, or we can totally destroy them with our words. We know that because many people, many adults, are still suffering from childhood trauma. The second week so that's last week, right, we talked about correcting with care and how discipline produces a harvest of righteousness. But it's not about y'all breaking their spirit. So we have to model God's grace when we're correcting and guiding. And I even linked it back to how we show up at work, because there are a lot of broken kids at work, so even adults who haven't got past some of those pain, and they're showing up on the job as adults and they're breaking other people's spirits. So they're living out their emotional trauma on the job as adults.

Speaker 1:

So this week we're going to do covering their future in prayer. Jeremiah 1.5 is one of my favorites. I know a lot of you all know it. But this week we're going to really talk about speaking over their purpose, even when they can't see it. So it's really important for us to help our kids walk confidently in who they're called to be.

Speaker 1:

And this can be really tricky if you are a parent who maybe you're not sure what they're called to do or what you know. We're not asking for you to prophesy right. That's not where we're going. What we're talking about is the way that we cover them, and so we cover them through prayer, but we also cover them through actions, the things that we do to help support our kids. We're covering their future right. We're making sure that we give them the best opportunity, the best education you know, all those things to help them walk into a solid future. We don't want to be the obstacle and the roadblocks for our children, right? And so that's what we're going to talk about today.

Speaker 1:

So, real quickly, let's pray first. Well, we just thank you first of all, lord, for just reminding us, in the same way that you marked our, our future and our plans, that you have sealed us with you, blessed us, you've given us these great talents and gifts. We ask for God that you'll help us as parents, as godparents, as aunties and uncles, as whatever role we play in the children in our lives, whether they're young or old, that you will help us to help them and cover their future and bless them and guide them and instruct and inspire them. And I ask for that, in the same way that you spoke to Jeremiah and showed him that he was a part of a plan, he had purpose for God, that you'll help us to speak that into our very children. And I also ask that you'll bless us this morning for those who are standing in need of an encouraging word, and that we're going to take heed for what you show us concerning our kids, amen. So this is really important, y'all, because a lot of times again we talk about we want to break generational curses. We are in the business of that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, jeremiah 1, verse 5,. The verse says before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nation. So this is Jeremiah hearing from the Lord. So, just in terms of context, jeremiah was in a village called Anathoth and that's where he lived. Okay, and apparently it was. I'm just going to contextualize it. Okay, apparently, it was a very quiet day. He was a young man and he was going about his regular, his day-to-day routine, and then the Lord, he felt the spirit of speaking to him. He heard from the Lord and so he was in this, you know, very simple village, dusty streets and all streets and all, and he was hearing from the Lord and the weight of what that meant, the calling that he had. He was humbled, but he was also afraid of what was the task that was going to be set before him. So the Lord was confirming to him that Jeremiah was a prophet.

Speaker 1:

So there's a couple of things I want to share with you, because sometimes, when you're in your own familiar territory. So, as a parent, right, for example, when you're in your own familiar territory and the Lord is, you know, showing you as a parent, that my child has these gifts, your child, you know, will start exhibiting some of these gifts and a lot of times we will dampen their spirits. We, as parents, aunties and uncles, because of our own experiences, we start telling them all the why nots right, why they can't do the things. We start looking to our own limitations. You can't get to college because I can't afford it. You can't be a doctor because everybody in my family is a lawyer. You can't be a pastor I don't think you've been called. You can't be a project leader because you don't have that type of skill. We start dictating our kids our future. We start to tell them out of our own flesh, out of our own desires and sometimes out of our own fear, out of our own flesh, out of our own desires and sometimes out of our own fear, what we want them to do.

Speaker 1:

When my daughter was younger, the one thing she wanted to do when she was younger she wanted to be a scientist. So she had all these crazy experiments that she would do in her bathroom y'all, and there were times when I was like you are not about to take this house down. Times and I was like you are not about to take this house down, okay. So she wanted to be a scientist. She knew all the things. She was really excited about that, and this was when she was much younger. So what we did is we started to support her to say, okay, if you're going to do that, then these are the subjects you're going to have to excel in, these are the things that you need to study and you have to learn more about the field. Well, over time, what happened was the more she learned about that field, the less she liked it. So she started to shift into what she wants to do now. So so she's a um, a rising junior. What she wants to do now is different from what she wanted to do when she was 10. And so because that shifted, uh, and she is clearly walking kind of in the in that vein, in that path so we had to shift and say, okay, well, then we're going to support you. If you want to do this thing, here's the education that you need. You will have to go to college, you will have to get a degree. You will have to do the thing. You have to get great, like we. So we started to shift our perspective and how we supported her.

Speaker 1:

What we didn't do is say well, the word says before I knew you and you're supposed to do that thing over there and you can't change your mind. The Lord called you and someone laid hands and told you all the things. This is a point of correction for us as adults, because a lot of times we refuse to be flexible as our children get older and they start to change what they say they're going to do, in the same way that we have to experience our, our um, go through life and experience different things. Right, a lot of adults, right, y'all have gone through jobs after jobs after jobs. You have changed positions on your jobs. Right, you might've changed fields and companies. Well, you have to allow your children to make changes as they go through their lives. Right, you have to allow them to shift and learn and grow and stretch and all the things.

Speaker 1:

So what we take from this is, when the Lord was speaking to Jeremiah, he didn't say that I'm appointing you to a prophet to the nations in the year of our Lord. He didn't limit him. He just said this is the field, this is who you are. So before I formed you, I knew you and you, you, and essentially, what the Lord is doing here is telling Jeremiah that he has a purpose. Right, there is a reason, he has value, right?

Speaker 1:

Um, so I want to, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna pull the screen down, I'm gonna share this, share this with y'all. I want to encourage us more than anything, when we're speaking to our kids, when we talk about recovering their future in prayer, is I want us to get into the habit of telling them that I support your future. We don't tell me and again, there are, you know, a lot of times. Our kids don't want to tell us what they want to do. Because you're going to, you're going to say something negative anyway, right, you're not? I mean, come on, right? So you want to have a.

Speaker 1:

First of all, ask the Lord for favor with your kids so that you can have a conversation, an honest conversation, and you know. And then, lord, you know, this is the prayer Lord, you give me favor with my kids so I can have an honest conversation. And then, when he does that and tells you, you'll know when it's the right time to approach him, you know. Then you sit down and you'll say and don't make it a thing, y'all, don't make it about you. Make it about them. And you say you know, hey, um, maybe, if they're in the job market and things aren't going very well, you know, just say you know, just encourage them and say you know you're, um, you're, you're, you speak life into their future and you know you're blessed to do this. And you know, uh, all things are working together, like y'all. And also, um, don't just throw scripture at your kids. They are watching your response to when things are going down in life.

Speaker 1:

If you, as an adult, when things go wrong, you start freaking out and crashing out, right, you are not in the position to advise your children, I am sorry to say it. Okay, so what we want to do is to remind them that they are valued and they have purpose in their life. You have to speak that into our kids. If you don't do it, someone else is going to do it, and the way that someone else does it, it might lead them into something that's not meant for them. You know what I'm saying, okay, so that's what I wanted to share, covering their future in prayer.

Speaker 1:

I pray that this is going to encourage you as a mom, auntie, uncle, whatever it is, if you have any approximation to children, that the Lord has assigned kids to you stepmom, stepdad, bonus, whatever the title is you roll with that. You have just a nice solid conversation where you let them know that you believe in them, that you value them. Again, like I said, don't make it about you. Just have a really quick tap conversation. Tap in and check in on your kids adult kids and young kids and let them know that your future is solid, your future is bright, things are going to work out together for your good and bless them in that way. Right?

Speaker 1:

So we thank you, lord, that you remind us and you encourage us that we all have purpose and that we're living purpose-driven lives, that you have already marked us. You've given us great gifts and great talents, and so now I'm asking for you to give all of us who are responsible for young children and adult children that you give us the wisdom so that we know how to encourage and inspire those kids in our lives. So, lord, I ask that you'll bless us, and asking you to even heal those of us who never heard these words of encouragement. Growing up, they never had someone, they didn't have a parental figure, they didn't have a family member or a friend encouraging them, and so I ask that you will heal the broken hearts and broken minds of those so they don't repeat this behavior with their children. Father, I also ask that you will give us a measure of grace to do this, so that we don't over promise that there's a balance in how we do this.

Speaker 1:

A lot of us are speaking things into our lives that our kids truly were not meant to do, and so we're just asking that you will help us to stay balanced in these conversations. Give us favor so we can speak to our kids, and also that they will hear from our heart. Thank you, lord, for blessing us today. Thank you for giving us this great series this month, as we are helping one another to parent and help our kids and families and all these things we asking in your son Jesus's name. Amen, y'all.

Speaker 1:

Like I say every week, we are doing life together right, so it's important for us Again. You can know scripture all day long, you can know the Bible stories all day long, you can be a Bible scholar, apostle, prophet, preacher, pastor all the things all day long, but we still have to live and exist right, we still have to share the space with each other, and so just really grateful for this community where we're learning and growing together. And so, again, shout out to all the moms and dads, aunties, uncles and grandparents, all of us who have this incredible, blessed position to pour into our kids, and thank you, god for all of the. I call them my invisible kids. I have a lot of invisible kids, meaning kids that I didn't give birth to, but I still claim them as my own and covering them in their awesome futures as well. All right, so I hope that blessed y'all have an amazing day.

Speaker 1:

Don't forget it's Thursday. That means we have prayer today. Also, a quick shout out and thank you. We've had over 300 callers this month. This, I'm sorry, this half of the year, starting from prayers like what over 300. So shout out to the three praying sisters. You know who you are. Thank you for serving. We're praying this month for caregivers. Thank you for showing up y'all. We have we do have people who join the line and say nothing, and that's okay. Thank you for dialing in and we ask that you'll just you'll share the information with a friend or family member who could use just a little bit of encouragement this year. Otherwise, y'all have an amazing Thursday and I will be back next week, see you.