Be generous with encouragement and affection.
As you get to know the person your child is becoming, you may sense their hunger for appreciation. We can’t help noticing our teen’s negative behaviors, but they still need our encouragement and affection—even though we sometimes feel that giving it is a like hugging a porcupine! Karen and her husband praised their daughter’s desire to do well in school and pointed out how her studying was paying off in good grades that semester. Those encouraging words gained them a listening ear and gave them the opportunity to share why they felt youth group and their other church activities were so important.
Showing patient love, providing an example to follow rather than pushing our own views, and encouraging our teens consistently can have a powerful, positive effect on the choices they make and the values they choose—for life.
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Shaunti Feldhahn loves sharing eye-opening information that helps people thrive in life and relationships. She herself started out with a Harvard graduate degree and Wall Street credentials but no clue about life. After an unexpected shift into relationship research for average people like her, she now is a popular speaker and author of best-selling books about men, women and relationships. (Including For Women Only, For Men Only, and the groundbreaking The Good News About Marriage).
Her latest book, Find Rest: A Women’s Devotional for Lasting Peace in Busy Life, focuses on a journey to rest even with life’s constant demands.
Visit www.shaunti.com for more.
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