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Relationship between parents and teens
Relationship between parents and teens
What is role of parents in development of adolescent
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There are many blessings that God has so graciously given me to experience throughout the years, one of those blessings is parenthood. My wife and I have been blessed with four wonderful girls: Missy, Regina, Nancy, and Alice. My oldest daughter Missy, is now fifteen, and even though my wife and I have spent years rearing her for young adulthood…the truth is…I hate to see her grow up so fast. It seems like only yesterday I was going to school and eating lunch with her, but now we are having discussions about buying a car. Even though this is saddening to my heart, the reality is: there comes a time when kids must grow up. Christians are the same way.
Once an individual accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the bible refers to them as “babes in Christ” (I Peter 2:2). Sure, an individual who accepts Christ could be thirty years of age, however, the bible teaches, even at thirty years of age the individual has become “born again” (I Peter 1:23); a birth has just taken place -- the spiritual birth of their souls. Therefore just as children must grow from infants into adults, likewise, the new Christian must grow from spiritual immaturity into spiritual maturity.
As a child I loved ridding skateboards. I would climb the biggest hill I could only to race down it with everything in me. There was nothing like feeling the wind blow through my hair, and feeling my heart pounding in my neck because of the speeds I was reaching. I was young; I was living life on the edge. However, I was unaware of the dangers around me -- as I later found out.
My family would always take an initiative to warn me about the risks of riding my skateboard without safety gear. I would listen long enough to end the conversation; put on the safety gea...
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...all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17). What is the armor of God? His Word.
Thus far, we have discussed three reasons why spiritually immature Christians are at risk. Now let us turn or focus to discovering ways the Christian can grow into maturity, and develop a close relationship with God. Throughout the rest of this book you will discover the Building Blocks of Christianity: Ways to achieve spiritual maturity. With your bible open, a pen in hand, and a receptive spirit, let us begin the journey.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity: A Revised and Amplified Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books, Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print.
Faith plays a pivotal role in our construction of religion. The work of Dr. Sharon Parks analyzes faith development throughout one’s life span but pays special attention to emerging adulthood. Dr. Parks has an extensive academic career which incorporates her attendance of Princeton University’s theological seminary. As well as her attendance of Harvard University’s divinity school where she obtained her doctorate. Through her extensive research in areas such as “developmental psychology, religion, theology, leadership and ethics” (Service Resources, 2014) Parks is able to focus her work on faith development. Her work is influenced by theorists such as Erickson, Piaget, Perry and Levinson but primarily it is based off of Fowlers work in faith development. Her background in teaching and counseling has allowed her close access to seeing students during this important portion of their lives.
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling written by Mark McMinn and published by Tyndale House in 2011 notions towards the idealization that Christian counselors need to be privy in the most recent psychological methods as well as theological theories. “This is a book about counseling processes techniques” (McMinn, 2011, p. 150). McMinn also alluded that Christian counselors benefit from having a spiritual maturity. With having these attributes counselors are better prepared to take note of prayer, Scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. McMinn (2011) model flows in the direction of healing while equating to a more advantageous relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ as well as with other relationships (McMinn, 2011).
Secondly, the Church can insist on its identity as an inter-generational community. It can do this structurally, by refusing to segment congregations by age, and temperamentally, by recovering a biblical respect for maturity and rejecting popular culture’s infantilism, thereby offering to children a goal of growing up. Popular culture exalts perpetual adolescence.
Christianity has its challenges. It places demands on us that set us apart from the rest of our world. The bible calls us a peculiar people, who navigate the challenge of living IN the world, without being OF the world. When we say ‘no’ to temptations that are enjoyed by the masses, we are labeled as self-righteous snobs, religious weirdoes, or worse. But we persevere, and we press toward that invisible line the Apostle Paul drew in the sands of time…for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
Bryant and Brunson have done a terrific job of assessing the pastoral ministry and giving sound advice, to the young or prospective pastor. The present author believes that this book should be standard in every pastor’s library. “God promises to be with his servants as they follow” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 16) The apostle Paul gave three rules to keep the pastor on the track of a good reward: “Fight the Good Fight; Finish the Race; and Keep the Faith.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 240-242) The greatest joy for a pastor is to, “Finish well.”
The church must strive to have in place a biblical foundation to discipleship that relates to the millennial generation. All of the churches discipleship efforts should strive to build and foster authentic relationships. We are at a precarious point in the life of the church where the Christian community must come to a conclusion to rethink the efforts to making disciples. “Some (though not all) ministries have taken cues from the assembly line, doing everything possible to streamline the manufacture of shiny new Jesus-followers, fresh from the factory floor. But disciples cannot be mass-produced. Disciples are handmade, one relationship at a time.” In today’s culture the church needs new architects to design a way in which the local church community can foster and build authentic relationships that lead to discipleship.
and grow in the scope of their experience and understanding of their faith.1 All Christians engage
Nowhere is the meeting more alive on any Sunday morning than in the youth department. It is here the church trains its reserve, from its teenagers down to babes in arms. My interests lie mainly with the teens. Bold and uninhibited they are a product of the hip hop culture recently grafted into the body of Christ. There is a liberty to their worship and faith. Their conversation (in the literal and biblical sense of the word), both within and without the church premises is the same: straight shooting and ceding to nothing that can not prove its practical usefulness. I cannot say that this unequivocation concerning faith is as a result of their having reconciled, in their mind, the conflict between the principles of the kingdom of God and the practices of circular society (often it is the same uncertainty that drives us to closer scrutiny to verify the things we have believed); but this, rather, seems to be the fruit of a way of thinking that values, above else the immediately profitable. A standard of values that retains or relinquishes information (even doctrinal information) by this criteria. Of course on fundamental issues we are all in agreement.
Maturity is commonly used word, but when asked what the word means many people simply shrug their shoulders. Maturity isn’t a word that has a clear definition. Being based primarily on one’s connotation, it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Personally I picked this word up through context. However, upon doing a careful study of where this word originates and other’s connotation’s, I feel I’ve achieved a relatively good understanding. Webster claims the word to mean “based on slow careful consideration,” but I feel there is much more to this word than that.
Spiritual formation is a process that morphs as we grow and change. There is no one singular correct path this type of journey takes because each journey is as individual as the person who is experiencing it. Most obvious, the journey will be different from those who identify as religious and those who do not and will diversify with in each category. For example, the spiritual journey a Buddhist takes will be different from that of a believer in Judaism or Christianity. In fact, the journey will continue to diversify between Christians, male and female, age groups, even by demographic location. Consequently, the spiritual formation process is as diverse as it is intricate and we may never be able to discover all the journey options. Although individuals may not actively recognize they are experiencing spiritual formation it is a process that affects all. Because it is in human nature to question, learn, grow, and act, everyone to a certain extent is exposed to a unique spiritual formation journey.
Paul experienced a coming of age moment at the age of twelve years old by giving a really special and thoughtful going away present to his special friend Becky. Sally experienced a coming of age moment at the age of what seemed like her teen years, and she did it by making a mature choice of attending a memorial service. When reaching certain or uncertain points in life one will leave small parts of their youth behind and become more mature as they grow and by doing this they experience coming of age. All will have a youthful mind or young attitude before the process of coming of age. During the process of coming of age, one performs a mature action. After the process of coming of age, one becomes more respectful to themselves and others. To recap, coming of age is when one matures when getting older by leaving pieces of their youth behind, making a mature choice, and by doing this they gain and give
There comes a time in everyone’s young life where you have to overcome a challenge, and it will help mold you into a better, more well rounded person. These can either be shaped by a failed attempt at correcting the problem, or a successful one. Whether it is a failure, or an successful attempt; there is always a lesson to be learned.
I’d like to state the most obvious observation that I’ve made about spiritual formation; that is that I will always need to be seeking for ways to nurture my personal spirituality throughout my life. I know that to most people this may sound like a “duh” statement, but for me it has truly become a reality and one that I must admit I have been struggling to embrace. I was brought up in a church that, like most traditional churches, stayed happy living in the “comfort zone” of their Christianity. They took everything that the Bible said at face value without digging in to find out why they believed what they believed. I had never been challenged to look deeper into the text. In the past few years I have felt the need to tunnel out of this cave of what I feel is best labeled “Christian ignorance”. In the process though, I have had to come to terms with letting go of the things that brought me comfort and provided me with what I thought it took to have a close relationship with God. Some of those things were tangible. Most were not. The things that were the least tangible actually ended up being the hardest to let go of.
A common piece of everybody’s vocabulary today is a word used in various contexts with little understanding to comprehend what it really means. “Maturity”, the stream of questions that come to our mind when we begin to ponder on the eight letter word is numerous. The most basic being, “What is maturity? How does one step up on the pedestal of maturity? And how do we measure maturity?” Einstein puts his perspective on maturity in an even more complicated manner, “I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity”, this view point does paint us a picture of maturity, but leads us to a whole new world of mystification.