Your Kids and Relationships

Parents, today I want to encourage you to conduct a two-pronged relationship check. First, take time to take stock of your family relationships and closeness. Kids who are engaged with their families and who know they are loved are less prone to try to find a secondary family in a unique peer group subculture. Of course, our teens value their social connections, and they will always gravitate toward a friend group of some sort as they walk the path to adult independence. And this is where you need to continually engage in a secondary relationship check by getting to know who your teenager’s friends are, getting to know those friends, and coming to an understanding of how those friends are influencing your teen’s beliefs and behaviors. You must realize that the formative power of adolescent friendships will be greater if you are not taking the time to continually build a loving, caring, and God-honoring relationship with your kids.