This week I'm sharing some articles from around the web that may be a help to those with difficult situations with teens or young adults in their homes. I am praying these links may be a help and an encouragement to you to stay focused on the Lord and continue to pour forth love, grace and the gospel to your teen.
Make sure you are making time with your teen a priority in your life. This is where the early years of building an open relationship of good communication are really needed. Let them know they can come to you with anything and that they are always loved. It is never too late to build that relationship and the most important thing is you need to be on your knees in prayer for them always.
Some places to visit:
(If you only visit one link make it the first one. You can read the transcript online but I recommend you listen to it if you have 20 minutes.)
God in Your Most Desperate Situation – “As the father walked through the rest of that day, he was stricken in his heart. He was smitten in his heart to realize what a difference it had made to stop cursing his son and to start blessing him.”
When Your Children Don't Seem to Share Your Faith– “We think we’d like to have all that great work of grace in our lives, but we don’t want to go through the mess that is sometimes involved in getting there.”
Parenting Teenagers in Grace University – “This is the hardest university I’ve ever been in, and I’m not sure if I’m ever going to graduate. If I do, it certainly won’t be with honors. However, I’m learning so much about God’s lifelong grace towards me (and about my parents’ grace towards me over 30 years ago), that I’d be willing to repeat the course.”
Let Them Come Home (John and Abraham Piper) – “Looking back on my years of rejecting Christ, I offer these suggestions to help you reach out to your wayward child so that they, too, would wake up to Christ’s amazing power to save even the worst of us.”
When Kids Question Their Faith – “Remember that the freedom kids feel to express their doubt is largely due to the relationship parents have built with them before they hit this period. And if kids know they are unconditionally loved and cherished, they will be much more receptive to the involvement and loving guidance of their parents during questioning periods.”
What Does the Bible Say to Do With a Rebellious Child? – “The child who exhibits a rebellious streak may be doing so for a variety of reasons. Harsh, unloving, and critical parenting will nearly always result in rebellion of some sort. Even the most compliant child will rebel—inwardly or outwardly—against such treatment. Naturally, this type of parenting is to be avoided. But no matter what style of parenting a family embraces, a child might rebel.”
Teen Rebellion Series at Focus on the Family – “Whether dealing with basic issues such as respect or complex issues such as at-risk behavior, parents sometimes struggle to understand the difference between healthy teenage autonomy and blatant teen rebellion. What looks like rebellion may actually be a teen's natural “itch” for greater independence.”
Building Better Communication with Your Teen – “One of the best tips to share is to listen to your teen. Let them know they are important to you. Let them know you respect what they have to say and their opinions matter.”
“In every situation in our lives, God is always doing a thousand different things that we cannot see and we do not know.”
~ John Piper
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