Fridays are For Illustrations: Helicopter Parents

Often I will refer to articles I recently read to help emphasize or illustrate a point I want to make. Sometimes I will quote from the article itself. Other times I will refer to it and summarize the guts of it in a sentence.

Recently, when attempting to encourage parents to allow their children learn mistakes on their own, I referred to a newspaper/web article. Entitled “How Helicopter Parents are Ruining College Students,” the article was from The Washington Post.

In the sermon, I merely referred to the article and made a comment about its contents. However, had I quoted it, I would have used the following:

The kids who have been raised by parents who watched their every move, checked their grades online hourly, advocated for them endlessly and kept them busy from event to activity to play date are tucked away in college. But that doesn’t mean their parents have let go. They make themselves known to schools, professors, counselors and advisers. And yes, college presidents.

. . .those parents are forgetting some very important lessons in Parenting 101, and that is how to help a child learn how to really thrive. . . saying goodbyes at the dorm and then giving that little bird a push is what will help him or her succeed. That doesn’t mean letting go or not being involved anymore. But hovering and intervening too often doesn’t do students any favors.

You may or may not be able to use this article for an illustration. However, referring to an article during your message accomplishes a couple of things: (a) it piques the interest of your hearers and “brings them back in;” (b) it lets your hearers know that you don’t live under a rock; and (c) it oftentimes will show how the Bible is right, compared to the world’s way of thinking.

What are some articles you have referred to recently to emphasize or illustrate a point?