Adolescents to Adults

In our church, we have adopted the Legacy Milestone Model, introduced to me first by Brian Haynes at the D6 Conference in 2009. The premise of this model is to provide an intentional way of celebrating milestones in the life of a child from birth through the final milestone, "Life in Christ." (You can explore lots more great things about the Legacy Milestone Model by clicking on this link.) One of the milestones, about midway through this process is called "Rite of Passage", similar to the Jewish bar/bat mitzvah, which celebrates the transition from childhood to adulthood at the age of 13. 

This year at the D6 Conference, I was blessed to hear Tim Elmore speak on how their family has celebrated this milestone in their daughter's life. When she turned 13, she got to choose six women she looked up to (and who her parents approved of) to be "one-day mentors" sometime during the next year. These women arranged a full day away with Tim's daughter (some took her along to their work place, others arranged things like shopping, spa days, etc.), and during that day they were asked to share one life message that their daughter would benefit from knowing. Tim said that this year-long process had a profound effect on their daughter. At the end of the year, the daughter and all six of the mentors gathered for a nice dinner with the family, and each one came with a letter of blessing that they read to the daughter. To wrap up their time, they gathered around the daughter and each one prayed for her.

Is that not an amazing experience for an adolescent to be launched into the things of adulthood? What a great way to surround your child with strong Christian influences and to model for them what an adult Christ-follower looks like. God has placed us all on this journey together, and it is certainly a privilege to be able to mentor the next generation and challenge them to be all that God has intended for them to be!

Tell me...how does YOUR family celebrate milestones?