Author: Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

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.

Continue reading More Resources for Parents with Teens in the Dating Years

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.

Continue reading Cure for the “Boy Crazy” Teen

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.

Continue reading Christian Parents: Having the “Talk” with Your Children

The Science Behind the Teen Brain

During a stint recruiting doctors, I became fascinated by medical science. Educators spend a lot of time debating what we can alter with education and environment and what is pre-determined by biology. My problem with most scientists is that they remove God from the equation. I really do believe God has the power to “overcome” biology or any other sciences and their rules if He chooses to do so. In spite of my belief, I know that most of the time, God allows our bodies to function in certain standard ways.

As an educator, I am always curious about the latest research involving the brain. A PhD Astronomer friend recently reminded me that you must take every scientific discovery with a grain of salt. New instruments or more thorough or broader research can often turn recent discoveries upside down. With his warning in mind, I decided to learn what the latest thinking was on the teen brain. I volunteered to review a galley of a new book which will be released in a few months called, What Are They Thinking?!: The Straight Facts about the Risk-Taking, Social-Networking, Still-Developing Teen Brain by Aaron M. White, PHD and Scott Swartzwelder, PHD.

Continue reading The Science Behind the Teen Brain

Praying Blessings On Your Children

Some of the most interesting passages in the Old Testament are when the patriarchs blessed their children. The Bible never really tells us for sure if they were actually prophecies from God or just reflected the father’s wishes, but they had a lasting effect on the sons who heard them.

As parents, we don’t have (and probably don’t want) the power of blessing our child with a predictive blessing like those in the Old Testament. We can use prayer though, to bless our children in other ways. Ways that may effect them more than we realize.

This month in our challenge to teach our children to live more like Jesus, we are focusing on helping our children to develop a personal prayer life while we also work on strengthening our own. One idea I heard years ago rings true to me now as I encounter more and more adults who had damaging relationships with their parents. Our children need to hear us asking God to bless them in our prayers.

Continue reading Praying Blessings On Your Children