How To Inspire A Teen …

On a whim I decided to spruce up Big C’s room a few weeks ago while he was gone for a week at a camp.  His space was a dumping ground and I was hoping a facelift might inspire him to keep it a little more tidy.

He has a large wall space right above his bed that needed a statement piece of artwork.  I started searching for a quote to put there – something to motivate my boy in life.  I looked online, in books, in the scriptures and even polled my friends on Facebook to try to find the perfect quote, all to no avail.

Then when I was cleaning out the world’s dirtiest teenager desk, I came across twelve sheets of lined notebook paper folded up and shoved back in a corner of a drawer.*  They were filled with quote after inspirational quote, all handwritten by my son.  I had NO IDEA that my son loved inspirational quotes.

I decided to wait until he got home from the camp to have him help choose a quote and make the artwork since he clearly had an idea of what he liked.

Want to know what he picked? Here it is:

We’re both very pleased with how it turned out.  Tomorrow I’ll explain why he picked this quote and how we made the piece.

Do you have a favorite quote that could motivate a teen?

*{If you want to talk about why I was going through my kid’s desk without him, we can talk about our family’s “Complete Transparency” policy later.}