Daily Archives: December 11, 2013

2 posts

Forming Biblical Expectations.

  In the last post we just considered the first part of this passage. The father in the parable could have made a judgment right after the second son said he would go to the field. After all, the first son was defiant and the second son was respectful. It would seem clear – the first son could be expected to defy his father and the second son could be expected to follow through and honor his father. But as the parable continues, just the opposite actually happened. The expectations formed after the initial encounters turned out to be flawed. This is an important lesson to learn in shepherding teenagers. As parents, it is your natural tendency treat your teenagers […]

Teenagers and Expectations

Look carefully at this passage and consider what the two sons were your teenagers: “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’  ” ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.  “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”       “The first,” they answered. Matthew 21:28-31 Being a teenager is not always easy. This has something to do with why it is not always easy to be the parent of a teenager. As […]