Are Your Kids Ready for Life? A Graduation Gift or a Summer Study

My kids were 15, 16 and 17.  The reality that they would be leaving me soon was heavy on me. Were they ready?  Had I given them enough to really prepare them?  Would they succeed in college, in their chosen work?  More important:  Would they succeed in life?

So that year, on the first Monday of each month, I wrote them each a letter.  Drawing from my own life experience, my much reading and especially my time in the Word of God, I gave them some brief thoughts on a secret of success in life.

Each “secret” is defined, related to real life and backed up with Scripture. I like to say, “It takes a half hour to read it and a lifetime to live it.”

I give it as a graduation gift or a birthday or Christmas gift to teens and young adults.  I’ve been encouraged, though, by adult friends who have said they use it as a daily devotional or that it has changed their lives. It makes a great 12-week study for a youth group, a Bible study—or to do with your own child as he/she heads off for the next chapter in life.

What are some of the secrets?  Here are a few:

Believe in Yourself

Accept Responsibility

Control Yourself

Take Wise Risks

And eight more…I love this little book.  I reread it often because it is so helpful to me to be reminded of these practical truths that enable me to keep progressing in the life of purpose, meaning and walking with God that I desire.  And that I desire for my children—and now my grandchildren.

Enjoy—and help to change a life.

Letters to My Children: Secrets of Success is available through Cru Resources.

What about you? What are some of your “secrets” for a meaningful life?

C2013 Judy Douglass

NOTE: Follow a series of excerpts from the book.