A RADICAL MESSAGE FOR PARENTS: Settle for Less and Receive More!

This is one of the most powerful article's I've ever read on parenting teens. It is a must read for ALL parents of youth/children - either you have a teen or a soon-to-be teen. There are things that we all need to rethink when it comes to discipling and training our children and this article gives a great foundation to start!

I have read some of Paul Tripp's other books and now plan to add this one (Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens by Paul David Tripp) to my reading list, too - and encourage you to do the same! Here are a few quotes or excerpts from the article (read it in full here - it's a little lengthy, but take the time, please! You will not be sorry for the investment of time):

" What often gets in the way of parenting teenagers is the idolatry of their mother and father."

"The book of Proverbs is very clear in reminding us that teenagers don’t usually hunger for wisdom and correction. I’ve never had one of my kids say to me, “As I was riding the bus home from school I was thinking, ‘Dad, you’re a really wise man. I’d just love to sit at your feet and drink in some more of your wisdom,’ or ‘Dad, I realize that when you correct me you are showing me your love. Would you like to correct me some more?’ ” So what should be my goal here? As a parent I realize that wisdom is crucial to pleasing God, and yet it’s not the thing for which my teenager tends to hunger. So now I’ve got my job description. It’s to sell my teenager something that he is not seeking. And so I decide that I’ll model being a wise man. I want to show him that wisdom is a beautiful and wonderful thing. And I want to sell wisdom to him so that he becomes a really keen consumer. The point I’m making is that in each area of teenage struggle there’s wonderful parental opportunity.

Another characteristic of teenagers is that they tend to be very legalistic. They don’t particularly love God’s law, they frequently debate the boundaries and they’re very boundary oriented. I tell people that if God’s law is like a fence, then my kids grew up with fence marks on their faces. As teens they were always pressing against the fence. Now you don’t solve the problem of teenage legalism by debating where the boundary is. Why? Because a child who is pressing his face against the fence is believing a very significant lie. The lie is that the good stuff is out there and God is keeping him from it. What I need to do is turn his body to the inside of the yard and show him the glory of what God has called us to."

"We also must realize that every teenager is a sinner and is trying to learn how to live in God’s world, learning what it means to be godly and learning the dangers of sin. There’s no possible way that that won’t have a huge impact on my life. And that’s why people don’t like their teenagers."

Read the full article here.

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