Family Life: A Teenager’s Place (Part 3)

You will remember that in our last article we used the example of Joseph as a Bible example of someone who had integrity.  Going back to that story note his words to Potiphar’s wife. You will see that Joseph’s allegiance was not just to his father or mother.  More importantly it was to God.  This is a most crucial point when we are training our young people. A young person’s allegiance ultimately must be tied to God.  Although this is a daunting task as a parent (or youth worker), our young people must develop their own relationship with the Lord. Here is a list of a few things that might be a help to a parent or youth minister:

1. Have daily Bible reading resources for young people. These can be journals for filling out information or be actual daily devotional thoughts.  They do not have to be complicated, but these can be a resource to start developing the habit of a daily walk with the Lord.  There are classics such as Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening, Faith’s Checkbook, and Oswald’s Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest.  These have stood the test of time.  The daily devotionals do not necessarily have to be all through the year.  You as a parent, a youth pastor, or pastor can develop a couple months of devotionals to help in directing a young person’s thoughts to a book of the Bible or a specific area of study through the Bible.

2. Have teaching on what a daily walk entails. As a parent, I am glad we have a youth group in our church that has times specifically for teaching on Bible study and prayer.  This is so important for the growth of young people—but it doesn’t end there.  There must also be teaching in the home.  This is obviously referring to those that have Christian homes.  As you know there are people reached through ministries in the church whose parents are not saved and who have no concern for a daily walk with the Lord.  Other ways must be implemented to help in these types of situations.  However, Christian parents play the most important role in developing the prayer life and Bible study of their young people.

3. Have young people journal their walk with the Lord. This is helpful as they mature from a young person at the age of ten or twelve up to the age of eighteen to twenty. They will have a record of high times and low times, times of extra prayer, times of extra Bible study, and times of barrenness.  I have made it a practice to journal a couple of times through a month for close to two decades.  This helps me to ponder the path that I am taking with my life.  Every so often I look back through a year or two and see if there is a pattern of wandering or weakness that I need to address.