Dating, Love, and Marriage – Page 12

More Resources for Parents with Teens in the Dating Years

Parenting teens is hard. Part of you is proud of the adults they are becoming. The other part of you is terrified of the adults they are becoming. Not because they are necessarily doing anything wrong. Being a teenager just looks really different from the parental perspective. We thought we were so grown when we took on adult tasks like driving. Now as the parent of a teen the same age, we become almost panicky at the idea of our “baby” driving that huge hunk of metal!

The same goes for dating. We thought we were absolutely ready for the challenges dating presented. Now, older and wiser, we know all of the things we were totally not prepared for when it came to relationships. The idea of our kids dating is terrifying. We know every bad thing that ever happened in a dating relationship and we want to make sure none of those things happen to our kids.

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Cure for the “Boy Crazy” Teen

I’ll admit, I was a bit boy crazy as a teenager. Thankfully, no acting out was involved, but I feel like I wasted a lot of time and energy worrying about when and whom I would marry. Eventually, I totally turned it over to God and of course met my wonderful, Christian husband shortly thereafter. Since then, I have been exposed to scores of teen girls – some boy crazy, some not as much – but all with lots of questions and confusion when it comes to the subject of “boys”.

I was thrilled when I was offered a chance to review Dannah Gresh’s new book, Get Lost. When my daughter was much younger, we loved Ms. Gresh’s Secret Keeper series. If you have young daughters, it is a “must” in my book for introducing your daughter to the idea of modesty in fun ways. I was curious to see if Ms. Gresh handled the ideas of purity, dating and marriage for teen girls with the same flair. She didn’t disappoint.

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Christian Parents: Having the “Talk” with Your Children

Christian Parents: Having the Talk With Your Children - Parenting Like Hannah Admit it. If your child is little, your stomach tied up in knots just reading the title of this article. Even if you have tweens and teens, you may feel a little queasy wondering if you handled the whole thing “properly”. Teaching children about their bodies, sex and purity is often uncomfortable for the parent and the child.

Television sitcoms have added to the discomfort and confusion. Show after show has depicted “the talk” as one awkward conversation the “goofy” parent has about the basics of “making babies”which the child usually already knows. As a result, I think many parents believe they can get by with one “this is how babies are made”, “now don’t do it until you are married” conversation and move on with their lives.

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Teaching Children About Love and Marriage

Parents often take their child’s future college education very seriously. Toddlers spend beautiful afternoons touring the “right” college campus, particularly near the football stadium. Elementary students are admonished to study so they can have the grades to go to a “great” college. Children practice pitches from dusk to dawn so they can have the skills for a baseball scholarship to the “best” program.

How much time though, do we spend with our child pointing out the characteristics of the “best” husband? How often do we help our child practice his relational skills so he can have a “great” marriage? How much do we emphasize the importance of finding the “right” spouse to our child?

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