Grace Community Church - Auburn Washington

STUDENTS

ParentLink

Ask any parent and they are likely to tell you that raising children is one of the most important yet challenging tasks God has entrusted to them. ParentLink is designed to equip, train, and encourage parents as they seek to raise their teens to become Christ followers. And we plan to have fun while we are at it!

Check back regularly for:

ParentLink meetings and gatherings.
Collective sermon questions to extend the discussion with your teen.
Audio of the week’s Collective lesson.
Book and other resource recommendations.

Our next ParentLink Event:
To be announced.

Books we recommend

Book: Age of Opportunity
Theme: A Biblical Guide to Raising Teens

Summary by Ken Henke:

Teenage hassles that disrupt parent’s lives? Or prime opportunities to connect with, listen to, and nurture our kids? Paul Tripp uncovers the heart issues affecting parents and their teenagers during the often chaotic adolescent years. With wit, wisdom and compassion, he shows parents how to seize the countless opportunities to deepen the communication, learn and grow with their teenagers.

This book was great encouragement to my wife and I as it gave us guidance in focusing not just on the behaviors of our children, but to hone in on the heart where these behaviors come from. This book is loaded with practical situations and ideas on how to drill into your child’s heart to help you navigate the many issues that face our teens and pre-teens. Here is an excerpt from the book that I highlighted that may give you a feel for the message this book delivers:

“To theologize with your teenagers does not mean you are to throw in an occasional Scripture verse that relates to the topic at hand. Rather, it means that every day, in every way possible, to embed the story of your teenager in the larger story of God. Teens live overwhelmed by their own story. They tend to live with such angst. The drama of the particular moment seems like the most significant thing in history! When we seek to help them see that it is not as significant as they think, they fire back the quintessential, “You just don’t understand!”

It is the present power of their story that often gets teenagers into so much trouble. They lose focus. They live only for what they can get out of this moment. They tend to live driven by their own desires and enslaved to a quest for personal happiness. In this quest for satisfied desire and personal pleasure, they often make decisions they live to regret. Teenagers desperately need to see the larger story. They need to see their lives as part of something that is bigger and more important than their own happiness. They need a glory to hook into and live for that is bigger than their own glory. They need their story embedded every day in the story of God. This will give them strength to endure what God calls them to endure.”

I highly recommend this book!