Half Way Mark

areas of interest: teens! We are new to parenting a teen, and he is the first of 5...

How does a parent encourage them to be more active and develop interests?
He seems to have become quite an introvert over the last year or two.

Jay:

Thank you for providing some fresh wind for those seeking to raise their children God's way.

For possible future blogs, I am interested in your thoughts on the family-integrated church and whether youth groups are more harmful than beneficial for Christian teens. I am seeing such worldliness infiltrate the church through the youth group. Most of the kids are in public school, and althought a purity standard is in place, it is definitely not enforced as indicated by how the teens (especially the girls) dress and the various "pairing-up" in boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.

Based on Titus 2, shouldn't all ages worship together instead of being segregated by age just as is done in government-run schools? It doesn't seem to be God's way to me, and it certainly isn't biblical. I would appreciate your thoughts some day in the future.

You and your book "Everyday Talk" have really blessed my family in encouraging us to raise the bar even further in rearing our children for the glory of God. We are grateful!

We are struggling with how to handle our son not eating his food at dinner time. What are some godly responses to this behavior?

Thank you for this excellent blog! I look forward to reading it each week.

I'd love some of your thoughts on how to encourage my day-dreaming 5 year old to stay focused on her tasks -- from her chores to homeschool assignments -- without constantly having to remind her of each step.

I’d like to learn about teaching children (especially young ones) to have biblical responses to situations that upset them. Here are two examples, which will hopefully make my question clearer.
1) When I tell my daughter, “Honey, in 5 minutes, it will be time to put away the coloring book and clean up your toys,” I expect her to cheerfully answer, “Yes, Mommy,” as opposed to whining, stomping her feet, etc.
2) If her little brother knocks over a tower she was building out of blocks, she may not start screaming at him, throw the other blocks in frustrations, etc. But what is an acceptable response to this?

Proverbs 29:11 tells us that “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.” So how do I teach my children to respond to these situations appropriately, while still acknowledging that they have feelings too? I don’t want to raise children who think that they always have to hide their true feelings.
And I often wonder how requiring them to respond cheerfully to a command addresses the heart. Do I really want her to answer me in a sweet voice even if she’s seething inside because her sinful heart wants to keep playing instead of obeying Mommy? I don't want to raise nice little Pharisees who know all the right answers but whose hearts are far from God. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

insight for FIRST disciplines would be awesome. My husband and I want to be "singing from the same songsheet" when speaking truth and discipline into our son's life, but we are butting heads more than we anticipated. It is also frustrating because our son is only 13 months, not yet verbally communicating, and seems to respond to few sign language tools.