Navigating the Teenage Years
How do you feel when you think about raising teenagers? I currently have 3 teenagers, and just like every season with kids, it has been different! When you have young kids, you are doing a lot of work with your hands. You’re feeding them, changing them, and carrying them. It can seem like when your kids no longer need you that way that they need you less. That is the furthest thing from the truth! Teenagers need you just as much as little kids, they just need you in different ways.
“I’m going to look forward and embrace every new season that God gives me with my children with fresh grace and perspective.“
In today’s podcast, I’ll share some of the things my husband and I do to invest in our relationships with our teenagers and train them in the way that they should go. After all, when you invest in the right things, you reap the right rewards.
Invest in your child’s spiritual life
Remember that they are still growing in their relationship with Christ. They are going through a pivotal moment where their faith is becoming more personal to them. Your role is to affirm their identity as a man or woman of God and keep them accountable when it comes to their daily time with the Lord. Find time to pray with them every day, even if it’s just a quick prayer as they're going out the door.
Invest Emotionally
Don’t let yourself get sucked into their drama. Be their stability. Show them mercy and make allowance for their faults. Your job is to stay clear-headed and level-headed.
Pray this: Father God, thank you for giving me my children. Thank you for trusting me with every stage of their development. Help me not to operate out of fear but out of faith. Show me what my kids are facing and the best way for me to invest into them. Show me how to lead them to you and fill in the gaps when I fall short. In Jesus’ name, amen.