The most important side of your kids….
The inside!
I don’t know about your kids, but mine are experts at talking about nothing… a lot!!! And for years, I was pretty good at keeping things surface with them…. partly because I was afraid to dig deeper, if you know what I mean. God really convicted me in this area and I’m so glad he did!
I have always been really good about knowing exactly what my kids want as gifts and what their favorite foods are…. But what about the really important stuff? Do you know….
- How their small group is going at church?
- If they have any Christian friends at school or in your neighborhood?
- What their hopes and dreams are?
- What they like most about themselves?
- What breaks their heart?
- What their Love Language is?
- Their biggest fears?
- If they see you and your spouse as Spiritual Leaders in your home?
- Who their favorite teachers are?
- The latest miracle God performed in their life?
- Who is their best friend?
- Their biggest challenges at school (not only academically)?
- How you can pray for them?
- Fill in the blank_____________________________?
My kids had/ have the extra challenge of being non-biological to me and had a whole other set of insecurities and hurts that many kids aren’t challenged with… but that was also a subject that I had to tread light with talking to them about and getting them to open up about because I wanted to protect my heart too, right? Well, once I let that go and let them see they were safe to open up with me, healing was able to begin. Did some of what they told me hurt? YES!!!!! But it really wasn’t about me. It is always so much more important that your kids feel safe talking to you about what is on their mind and heart than how YOU might feel about what they say!
I would like to challenge you for the next few days to engage in meaningful conversation with your kids about God’s unique plan for their lives, based on how God has uniquely created them to be. If you talk about nothing else “deep”, it’s okay… this is a safe way to start and will get the dialog flowing! Remember…. It’s a DIAlog you’re after… not a MONOlog! 🙂 Think about it…. other than the topic of salvation, I cannot think of any other more important conversation we can have with our teens than the one about personal surrender to God’s will for their life! There is no hat we wear as “parent” that is more important than this… and THAT is why we are starting here with this blog!
In the days and weeks to come, we are going on an awesome, life-journey together with our teens as we grow closer and deeper in our relationship with them. Please don’t wait to do this! Begin to make a difference NOW and join us as we make this intentional stand to give our teens all we’ve got!
Dear Lord, thank you for stirring a hunger in each parent or youth leader reading this blog post to want to be more intentional about how they are relating to their teen! May You be glorified through each and every single conversation. As iron sharpens iron, give us each a boldness to share with each other our successes and opportunities we come across this week. Protect each household and give them Your mighty boldness with their kids! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen <3
Please leave me a comment on today’s blog about how you plan on starting this conversation with your kids! We are all in this together… so let’s work together to help each other along!
Blessings to you and yours,
Megan
megan@girlfriendscoffeehour.com
https://www.facebook.com/megan.smidt
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Oh Megan, this is such good stuff, and such an important topic for parents! I know from personal experience that opening the lines of communication can make a HUGE difference in the relationship with kids!! I'm sad to know that there are parents out there that believe they just don't "have" the time to sit down with their kids!! Very important to MAKE time!! LOVE this!!! Thank you for your encouragement!!
Thank you Christi!!! I certainly pray it is a blessing <3
Megan this is such a great idea! Thank you for creating this blog for the parents! It is very useful and helpful stuff! <3
Oh good! I hope you are able to use some of these ideas with your kids… home and ministry,Tonya!! 🙂
This is an amazing message, Megan! I think communicating w/your teens is so important. Things may look "ok" on the outside, but teens are the masters of hiding their emotions. Sometimes you DO need to press them to open up a little more. That dialog is precious and so important to both the kids and the parents!
SO true, Sarah!!! Be sure to let me know how it goes as you dig deeper your kids <3