Three Parenting Tips – For Parents of Teens

My daughter is graduating in two months and I’m a bit of a mess.  I seem much more emotional than usual, prone to tears at any moment and a bit irritable when things feel the slightest bit out of control!  And then there is the relationship with my daughter.  It is changing and I have felt a bit insecure and fearful about finding my place as the balance is shifting, but still has not solidified yet.  As I prayed and Micah 6:8 came to mind:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and
to walk humbly with your God.

I recognized a bit of advice for parenting during this time of change:

Act Justly.  Do what is right and hold up God’s standards… but in those issues that don’t have to do with God’s standards, don’t hold our children up to our own standards.  So many things we differ with our kids about are preferences – not Biblical principles. We should reserve confrontations to the things that have to do with our kids’ relationships to God and His standards… not ours.  For example, is it really an issue of justice whether they come to every church meeting?  Or how clean their car should be? 

Love Mercy.  Be compassionate.  Be tender. Don’t feel that we have to correct every mistake and perfect our children.  And we need to receive mercy from God for ourselves as parents.  We need to love God’s mercy for ourselves and let ourselves off the hook for past mistakes (even if they were this morning) and confess whatever sin is on our hearts and receive His love, forgiveness and mercy that we may have it to offer to our children.

Walk Humbly.  Be honest about our own shortcomings.  Don’t try to be perfect or make our children into some better version of us.  Instead, look to God for our answers, strength and help.  Trust Him to figure things out. 

Please share your tips for navigating the boundaries waters between childhood and adulthood with your teen!

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