Parents, I have spent a lot of time praying for you and thinking about the incredibly difficult and eternally important job you have in raising the next generation.  I admire and respect you more than I can convey.  You are swimming in dangerous waters with those you love most…it can be exhilarating and exhausting.

During a Rescue Seminar last year, we asked the question, “What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about today’s teen culture?”  Many parents responded with: entitled, scary, lacking respect, invincible, the “hook up generation”, instant gratification, too much technology, exposed to too much, spoiled, lonely, full of potential, selfish, impolite, big dreamers, irresponsible, and the “me” generation.  As I read those responses and in many respects agree with them…it occurs to me why godly parenting is so important.

First, let me point out that all of these adjectives stand in opposition to what the Father calls them to be…He says that our children are hemmed in, that He makes the road rise up to meet them, He covers them with His wings, and He goes before and behind them.  He has prepared in advance good works for them to do, has given them the very mind of Christ and declares them to be more than conquerors.  Regardless of how the waters of the culture rage around us, if we know the Father, then we have the authority to cause our homes and our kids to line up with the Word of God.

Secondly, as I look through the above list of descriptive words about our teens…almost all of the negative attributes  listed have at best been sifted through our hands as their parents and at worst, we may have even been the origin of some of those attributes.  How does a child become entitled, disrespectful, selfish, or too entrenched in technology?  Could it at least be due in part to our allowing it if not, even if unknowingly, encouraging it?

I know we all love our children with a desperate kind of love.  We want them to have more than we had, to be more than we are, and to avoid some of the difficulties that we spent years trying to conquer.  We work hard to provide for all of their needs and all of their wants.  We are so busy trying to get them to the best lessons with the best coach, to the mall to buy the best shoes, to the right party to be with the right people, and eventually in the perfect school to pursue the perfect career…that there is little time to notice that somehow along the way, we have only fed the beast.  We didn’t mean to…we didn’t want to…but we did.

I believe with all that I am that we can change our expectation of our kids: the ones you teach at school every day, serve in Sunday school, and those who sleep down the hall from you…we may not be able to change the world, but we can change ours, we can change theirs.  I am praying that our community will draw a line in the sand.  We will not continue to settle for barely keeping our heads above water and gasping for breath.  We as parents will choose to find Him on the waves, reach up to take His arm, and with our eyes fixed like stone on His…learn to walk on the waves of this culture, equipping our teens to do the same.  I am praying we will see them believing Him and pursuing Him with all of their hearts.

Won’t you dive in with me?

Click here to order your copy of Rescue: Raising Teens in a Drowning Culture, by Candy Gibbs.