How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex (a post by pastor Mark Driscoll)

Parents - check out this post by Mark and Grace Driscoll, and share what you think.

http://feeds.theresurgence.com/~r/TheResurgence/~3/O5oxq9Si50c/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-sex

How We Spend Our Days « Orange Parents

http://www.orangeparents.org/how-we-spend-our-days/

10 Minutes a Day

... it's never too late to start.

Read this post about ten minutes a day.

New years resolutions are all the rage. This was a cool reminder I found today in reading Mark Batterson's blog. It's a good idea for personal study, but especially with your kids. And the "never too late/start with small steps" can apply to reading the Bible together as well as anything you want to start/change. Plus, as Batterson says, it's a "little" thing that will pay huge dividends. We as youth staff can never replace the impact you can have as a parent. Even though teens often reject it, family time, especially centering on the Bible, is one of the best gifts!

Happy New Year!

5 ways to make parents angry

This is a great blog post. Do you agree with these 5 points parents?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reyouthpastor/cgEl/~3/hiFX0xROIbE/

Rise in profanity on TV over the last 5 years

Just came across a study that was done to see if television is getting more profane, and here it is if you as a parent care to take a look at it. Just a warning - There is a table at the end that lists the offensive words, so don't be shocked when you come across them.

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/2010ProfanityStudy/study.pdf

Parenting Beyond Your Capacity

Hello parents!

You have heard me talking about the concept of "Orange", and I wanted to  make you all aware of this book that is put out by "Re-Think", which is where  all this Orange stuff comes from anyway.

It is written just for you as parents, and it boils down the parental portions of  the book "Think Orange", giving you something tangible to apply to  parenting.

As parents we know we are called by God to disciple our children, and in our heart we really do want to. At times it is hard to know where to start, or what it really looks like in real life. That is where this book comes in - it is practical advice on how to disciple your children for God's glory.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book - so much so that I bought 2 copies and put them in the church library so you can read them. So I want to really challenge you to take the time to check it out of the library and read through it. It isn't that long, and I really believe it will be super helpful.

Be sure to let me know what you think of it when you do read it! I want to dialog about this stuff.

 

Challenging article for parents of athletes

So I came across this article today which is written by a pastor in Maine who has worked with students for a while (Scott Linscott). While much of it is written with the extreme athletically driven parent in mind, I think it is thought provoking for all parents of teenagers to check out.

Let me know if you like it. Or if you think the guy is a jerk. :)

You can find it at Mark Oestreicher's blog here:

http://whyismarko.com/2010/open-letter-to-parents-of-teens/

Facebook Places

Facebook Places has now launched. Anyone can find out where you are when you're logged in, including addresses & map location. Parents - make sure your kids know. To undo: go to "Account," then choose "AccountSettings," then go to the tab across the top marked "Notifications,"then scroll down to "Places" and uncheck the 2 boxes.

It looks like facebook places works with the iphone application and the touch.facebook.com site which would be accessed from a smartphone. That might be it for now, but I plan on finding out more info.

You can check out more info about it at:  http://www.facebook.com/places/

Family Worship

http://theresurgence.com/martyn_lloyd_jones_family_worship

Posted from WordPress for Android

Orange Parents

This concept of orange is something I will be talking about at the parent meeting on Sunday. Check out this website - it is a good resource to increase the synergy between church and home.

http://www.orangeparents.org/

How many teens give their parents access to their facebook?

Here is an article which discusses how many parents have access to their child's facebook page. I found the following statistics interesting:
"The survey found that 56 percent of teens with a Facebook account gave a parent full profile access. Meanwhile, 34 percent of the students gave their parents no access at all, and 9 percent gave their parents limited access."

Here is the article:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2010/06/survey_many_teens_give_parents.html

New and simplified facebook privacy

Hello parents -

I wanted you to all be aware that soon facebook will make it simpler to set your privacy controls across the board and in fact it will be retroactive and cover all past info on your profile, wall, etc.

Here is an article in the Times about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/27facebook.html?emc=eta1

Make sure you help your kids with this so that they are safe and protected while they enjoy their social networking.

Have a great day!

Students are too busy

Good short article on how busy students are and a couple reminders for how we can best reach students in our fast-paced culture.
http://www.dougfranklinonline.com/youth-worker/students-are-too-busy/

Inheritence or Burden?

I was reading in Numbers 14 today, and I was reminded of how the Israelites not only failed their God when they lacked faith that God would grant them the Promised Land like He promised, but they also failed their children.
God says this to His people:

30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.

Yes, the children would enter the land. But it would be up to them to claim it. This was not God's original plan - these children were supposed to grow up in the land. They were supposed to inherit the land from their parents. But instead, because their parents rejected God's Word and lacked faith in God these children had no inheritence, and they would have to fight the battles their parents should have.
A sober reminder to all of us who are parents that we must fight the battles God has called us to, maintain a faith in our God that He will do what He says, so that we might leave a spiritual inheritance for our children and they might grow up in the land of God's favor.

Taking it Home

Just wanted to remind parents that there are take home papers in the student ministries shelves at church each week.
These papers coordinate with the Sunday School lesson and offer some ideas to dialogue with your children about the lesson and apply what they have learned.
Check them out!

Inter-generational Student Ministry

A friend sent me this great article that re-examines the way we do youth ministry. Check it out :

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife/discipleship/istheeraofagesegmentationover.html

"Taking it home"

I wanted to let you know that the take home papers which each of the high school students receive in sunday school are now available to you as well. I am placing a stack in the youth racks (located at the end of the main hallway which goes from the Sanctuary to the youth room).

I hope to do this each week so that you as parents can begin to think of ways to apply the lesson your children learn on Sundays throughout the week. The paper is divided into 4 sections - Faith Journal, Driving Home the Point, Talking at Home, and Daily Challenge.

These papers are only given out to the high school students, but they most often will be beneficial for you to look at whether your children are in middle or high school, since they are covering the same lesson topics each Sunday.

If you get a chance, pick one up and check it out!

Thanks for partnering with us as we strive to disciple your children!