May is here! As a close second to the Christmas season, the end of the school year might be as busy as it gets. With graduation parties, prom, end-of-year celebrations, and exams galore, parents (and their students!) are pulled every which way during this home stretch. We at Rooted hope you find the following articles helpful and encouraging as you navigate this busy season.
God gives good gifts to his children and is working all things for the good of those who love him. To the exhausted Christian parent, the good gift he gives is himself. Our hope and our identity are secure in him no matter what our circumstances. In our exhaustion, we can look to Christ who is our rock, our unshakable foundation, and our sure hope.
A life in Christ is a life of freedom from grades and assessments. A life in our local school system is not that kind of life. Fortunately our children’s lives as Christ followers are not defined by their performances, and his perfect sacrifice on the cross is our final assessment.
Does Jesus Care I’m Not Going to Prom? by Becky Paynter
Our most loving Jesus embodied an unlovely human form, living a life of sorrow that took him to the cross – all because he longed for his people to rest from their burdens in His deep and secure love for them.
Parenting Opportunities During Prom Season– Kristen Hatton
What our teens need (though they likely believe otherwise) when it comes to events like prom is for us to help them evaluate their choices and hearts through the lens of the gospel. We need to talk honestly about the temptations, potential dangers, and the reality of our hearts as we consider what is best when it comes to prom night (and everything else). Challenging events like this then become opportunities for us to shape and inform our teen’s decision-making grid, before they are faced with the free-for-all weekends ahead of them in college.
Navigating Prom: Looking Through the Lens of God’s Word to Filter Our Parenting Decisions– Kristen Hatton
Let’s have the conversations with them that explain why we are making the decisions we are. Let’s show them the lens we are looking through. By God’s grace their eyes will be open to see his ways are best. And because his love for us is so great, may the imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance He is storing up for us in heaven be what they long for, above all earthly treasures that will be destroyed, and can destroy them. (1 Peter 1:4)
We can use endings as an opportunity to help kids know that goodbyes are part of living in our fallen world, but to also know that someday, Jesus will return from his own “big goodbye” to make all things new and put an end to goodbyes forever.
