Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak: Communicating With Your Teenager
Parents become a safe place to confess sin and discuss failure when teens can see that we need the forgiveness of the gospel just as much as they do.
As we bring our anxieties about our lonely child before God, we can grow to trust in the goodness of God and his plan for our child’s life.
Parents become a safe place to confess sin and discuss failure when teens can see that we need the forgiveness of the gospel just as much as they do.
If parents understand our own heart’s bent, we should be able to enter in alongside our teenagers with compassion rather than condemnation.
Curiosity strengthens relationship; questions confer dignity. If you want your child to talk to you, try asking more and telling less.
When we share with our children what God is doing in our lives, we show them that God is at work not because of who we are but because of who he is.
I believe the Lord has grown our children’s understanding of the Gospel, in part through my husband’s and my failings, repentance, apologies, and tearful confessions that we are wretched sinners apart from Christ.
Do you remember those first early weeks with your newborn—when you were trying to understand what each and every cry meant? Does she need a diaper change? Is he too hot? Bored? Tired? Sick? Eventually you got it…