Dating, Love, and Marriage – Page 9

Preparing Christian Kids for Dating

Preparing Christian Kids for Dating - Parenting Like Hannah If you aren’t there in your parenting journey yet, you need to be prepared for the dating years of your kids. By the time they are ready to date, you have seen and heard every possible horror story imaginable. You hit your knees a lot praying your children have wisdom and God guides them in their choices. The decisions they make while dating can impact the rest of their lives. Yet most Christian parents have done little if anything to prepare their kids for dating.

Oh, most have the “date a Christian” and “wait until you are married” chats, but few if any parents give real life helpful advice. No wonder so many kids flounder and make really bad choices. That’s why I was interested in the new book The Chase: Trusting God with Your Happily Ever After by Kyle and Kelsey Kupecky.

The Kupecky’s are a young married couple who want to share with young people what they learned about godly dating and marriage. They have a bit of the cool factor as he is a Christian musician and she’s an actress with a couple of movie credits. The book has a very comfortable style as they ping pong back and forth telling about their dating lives before they met and once they met. They share the mistakes they made (nothing horrible really) and the lessons they learned along the way.

Continue reading Preparing Christian Kids for Dating

Resource for Christian Teen Girls

Resource for Christian Teen Girls - Parenting Like Hannah I am always looking for new resources that may speak to teens. I am not sure why, but it seems there just aren’t that many books which claim to help teens think about popular culture subjects from a godly perspective. One of my favorite authors in the category has always been Rebecca St. James. My daughter and I discovered her with a series she had developed for mothers and daughters and we stayed with her as she developed new materials during my daughter’s teen years.

Recently I was given the chance to review a book aimed at teen girls by Nicole Weider and Kristen Billerbeck. (I’m guessing Billerbeck is the ghost writer, but I think they should get equal billing more often than they do!) Project Inspired: Tips and Tricks for Staying True to Who You Are attempts to cover the topics of interest to teen girls. From fashion to media to friends and boys, Weider gives tips from a Christian perspective.

A former model, Weider seems most comfortable when giving fashion tips and makeup suggestions. The section did a good job of showing realistic fashion and encouraging modesty to a generation normally coached to show as much skin as possible. The makeup section made me a tad uncomfortable, but only because she listed a lot of specific brands. It made that section feel like a giant ad (I have no idea whether the companies paid any money to be mentioned.)

Continue reading Resource for Christian Teen Girls

When Your Child Dates Someone You Don’t Like

When Your Child Dates Someone You Don't Like - Parenting Like Hannah Through the contact me feature on the Parenting Like Hannah website, I sometimes get questions parents want me to discuss. One of the most common questions is some variation of “What do I do when my child wants to date someone of whom I don’t approve?”

I have struggled with how to best answer the question, because what the person means can vary from “the other person is married” to “I don’t like the way she wears her hair.” Evidently, one is of much more spiritual importance than the other.

If your child is dating someone who is pulling them quickly away from God or is causing them to break God’s commands merely by being in the relationship, I urge you to get help from a minister or Christian counselor. You can give them more details and they can act as mediators between you and your child if necessary.

If the spiritual danger is more tenuous or is more a matter of personal preferences or taste, the following suggestions may help you:

Continue reading When Your Child Dates Someone You Don’t Like

Christian Kids and “The Talk”

CHristian Kids and the Talk - Parenting Like Hannah Whenever I ask parents about parenting concerns they wish Parenting Like Hannah would address, one of the most frequent answers is the topic of sex education. Whether it’s what to tell their children, how to help them avoid temptation or how to help them make wise choices and understand the consequences of ungodly ones, sex is a scary topic for most parents. Especially Christian parents.

You see as Christian parents, we have to tell our kids God doesn’t want them doing all of those things their friends are doing. We have to help them understand the ultimate, fulfilling sex act – sex within the boundaries of marriage.

Most parents chicken out entirely. Of, they may be able to choke out the scientific basics and even throw a few Bible verses at their kids. Often though, “the talk” comes too late and doesn’t contain all of the information our kids need to make wise choices.

Continue reading Christian Kids and “The Talk”

Every Reason to Stay

Every Reason to Stay - Parenting Like Hannah A happy marriage is one of the best gifts you can give your children. Unfortunately, marriage – even Christian marriages – involve two sinful people living together. This means even the best of marriages have disagreements and tough times. If your marriage has issues – a lot of issues, you may be tempted to walk away.

Part of being a Christian is coming to grips with the difficult teachings of God. One of which is that God hates divorce. Oh, He makes a few exceptions, but in general it is obvious He wants us to stay married. Yet what do you do when it feels like you are at the end of your marital rope? How do you hang on for one more day when you believe that is what God would want you to do? Is your relationship even worth saving?

I don’t know the answers to your questions, but maybe I can give you some hope. Vicki Rose is a woman who looked like she was living the dream. Her husband owned a popular restaurant in New York City and they were part owners of the Yankees with all of the perks. Yet their marriage was an utter disaster.

Neither Vicki nor her husband were Christians when they married and God was not a priority (or really even a factor) in their relationship. Years of infidelity, drug use and selfish behavior left their marriage in shambles. Yet learning about God and His plans for them changed everything.

I won’t kid you, this is not a step-by-step how to save your marriage book. The author does mention at the end of the book a few major things she believes helped turn things around in their marriage, but they are very general. Turning their marriage around was not a quick nor an easy process. It actually took several years. What I do love about this book though is that it is as gripping as a novel, but can also give you some perspective and possibly even hope about your own marriage.

While the book definitely gives God the credit for the changes in the Roses’s marriage, the theology is a little off at times. My biggest issue is that in spite of being an avid Bible reader, the author failed to mention the importance of baptism in becoming a Christian (it is mentioned in every conversion in Acts.) There were a couple of other very minor things, but in general her thesis idea is correct – God can change lives and marriages.

I am in no position to give you specific advice about your marriage. All I can do is suggest you pray, search the scriptures, ask for solid Christian counsel and perhaps read this book to give you some additional hope. I truly believe it is God’s desire that we have solid Christian marriages. Maybe this book will give you what you need to keep working on yours with your spouse.