Teenagers Who Love

I know that's a funny title. Here's what I'm saying. Whenever anyone mentions having a teenager it's always the same chorus from parents of teens. It goes something like this " oh just wait. They're not going to want to be seen around you. They won't hang around and certainly they'll just turn into the biggest monster that ever walked the face of the earth." Well, I added the last line myself. But you get the point.

Before Carla and I were married 22 years ago, we would occasionally see teens in the mall walking hand in hand with their parents. We would almost always say to each other " that's how it's supposed to be". So we set out to have a relationship with our daughters that would foster that kind of result. So far so good. I would have 100 teens if they were as loving and kind as my daughter Ashley. Audrey is only 8 and I'm confident she too will be the same.

What are we doing? We're loving them, spending time with them, praying for them, and leading them in the way that they should go. Neither Carla nor I are obsessed with any sport activity to the detriment of our family. Neither of us plays golf, tennis or any other time consuming habit or hobby that demands that much time away on critical days and moments. Also, we don't leave it up to any church youth group or youth group leader to raise our children and mentor them in the ways of life. God gave them to us to handle that.

And lastly, what are they watching on T.V. and listening to with their music? We took the T.V. out 10 years ago and haven't missed it yet. So our daughter doesn't care who Miley Cyrus is and she never knew who Brittany Spears was. I'm not picking on Miley, just go listen to some of the lyrics of her fun, poppy little songs. It makes a difference what they hear, see and experience.

I'm done, hope it helped. I'm going to give my teen a hug and kiss now.

5-5-15  UPDATE
This is an update years later.  In regard to Miley Cyrus, her life has unraveled and she is what she is.  May God have mercy on her as He has on all who believe in the Lords gift of salvation.  My daughters are still going strong, thanks be to God.  So the moral to the story is, raise your OWN kids. Train them up and down bow down and crack under peer pressure.  You don't have to be consumed with the culture in order to engage it for Christ.