Melissa Kruger on Discipling Teenagers | Word First

- [Melissa Kruger] When you think about the topic of discipling our teenagers, I think one of the important things for every parent to realise is we are all taking our children somewhere. The question we really have to ask is what are we modelling for our children that we believe in? So as we live before them, are we asking them to give us academic success, or athletic success, or perhaps social success? Are we asking those things of them, or are we in the way we live our lives and what we teach them saying that our greatest hope for them is that they would glorify God and enjoy Him forever? And that's really... we have to first, as we start discipling our children, know what is our ultimate hope and purpose for them. And then any discipling relationship, it takes time. So one of the important things with our teenagers is that we give them our time, that we find our whole family sitting around together around the table, eating and sharing meals together. That we have times in our family when we are reading the scriptures together, when we're praying together, but also times we're just hanging out and laughing together. Relationships require time and discipling is always about relationships with one another, and I think one thing that's really important in that is that we... as we live our lives before our children, are living out what we hope they are doing. And so we're going to have to be in relationship with them in order to do that. A third thing I think is really important as we disciple our teens is they are all going to encounter hard things, and it's really tempting as a parent to try to rescue them from suffering rather than to walk through difficulties with them, pointing them to Jesus in their own suffering. And so I think as parents that's one thing we have to do. We can't just always rescue our teens, but we can walk day-to-day with them pointing them to Christ, and that's going to serve them well for their whole life. And then the final thing I think is so important is who we are as believers. Teens can always spot a fake and so if we are trying to give them something we aren't enjoying ourselves, they will see that. And so we want to have a type of discipleship relationship that is taste and see. Come with me, share in this feast, this good news of who Jesus is. I'm not trying to have you be a moral perfect child. I want you to know you're a child of the King, you are dearly loved. And so it's this invitation to them to come and live and that that they would glorify Him and enjoy Him not just glorify us. And so it's really turning them to Him and say, "We want your life to be about loving and enjoying Him." And so that's our hope as we disciple our teenagers, and I think that can really change the teen years, and make them joyful times as families together. We're all going to go through tough times with our teens, but they can be as we point them increasingly to Christ, they can be joyful family times as well.