Life Lessons from a Life Coach

Guest: Tami Peterson, Founder and CEO of Life Architects

Life Architects: Designing Solutions for Life and Leadership

Tami is a designer by vocation and has been creating lesson plans, curricula, and experiences her whole life. She holds an undergraduate degree in Christian Education from Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO, and an MA in Leadership, Theology, and Society from Regent College in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Her occupational titles have included elementary, middle, and high school teacher, librarian, admissions director, career coach, and director of college advising. Her title at Life Architects is Founder and Creative Engagement Officer where she designs and directs the projects we work on and helps everyone flourish by connecting with individuals, families, and institutions. Tami is married and has two adult children.

One of the amazing and important resources of a private Christian school is that it can be a safe place to ask questions, to wrestle with important life issues - your family should also be a place where children are asking questions - and that you, as their parents, are seeking to listen and learn from them and with them!

How do we start to train our children in “the way they should go”?

• Start by just paying attention
• “See and Say” - when you see something in your children, communicate that to them - encourage them by telling them the things that you see that God has created in our children

Some things that you can identify in your children that reflect the nature of God:

• God’s order and design - do your children love to bring order out of chaos?
• God’s desire to seek and save the lost - do your children love to save lost puppies?
• God’s creativity - do your children love to create new things and beauty?
• God’s healing and restoring - do your children enjoy helping others?

How do we equip our children to learn from the pains and sorrows of life instead of looking to help them avoid all pain and only seek pleasure? It’s difficult to allow our children to struggle, especially in a world that pushes everyone to be “elite.”

How do we develop a “learner mentality” - which means that we allow them to fail, so that they can learn from that failure - and that they can learn there are things they are not good at?!

Remember that all children are “wired” differently - and just because our current culture advances one particular area doesn’t mean that our children are wired to be successful in that area. If we allow our culture to define what is valuable, then our children will be defined by our culture. We should define our children by God’s design for them - and equip them to be all that God has designed for them to be - even if that means that their vocation does not command a great deal of money! Do we want our children to define their success and happiness by God’s design for their lives or by what the world says is important?

Scripture gives several warnings against the “love” of money, the pursuit of money - God’s Word frames us as “stewards” of resources - time, talents, and treasure - that ALL belongs to God, and we are to use what He’s given us for His greater glory!

Research about what keeps people “in the faith”

1. Worldview that has the answers to the questions of life
2. Mentor who walks with you on your journey
3. Community of people who speak the truth in love

Parents, if you’d like to reach out to Tami for additional attention, check out their website and services.

Special shout out to Jared Wood for allowing us to use his music - check him out at JaredWoodMusic!