Our teens and children are growing up in a very different America than the one you and I grew up in. As you have seen in the news, more and more Americans are becoming outspoken in promoting same sex rights and privileges. It is becoming a matter of preference like music genre or culture styles.
Even Christian kids are struggling with the issue. Especially when many churches are preaching “hatred” of people in non-biblical ways. Our job as parents is to help our children apply God’s Word to their lives and the world around them. If we ignore difficult topics, our kids will only hear the world’s view on them.
Open Dialogue– Create an on-going open dialogue with your kids about anything and everything, so that they continue to come to you (& God’s Word) for answers and guidance.
- Start the conversation: Ask them what they think about issues in the news and at their school.
- Use Scripture to answer questions and teach them how to search God’s Word
- Don’t overreact when they ask questions. This is a sure-fire way to shut them down for future talks.
- Avoid prejudice and derogatory terms. Use biblical terms for sin.
There was an excellent message from Seminary Dean, Dr. Mike Stallard, at our Teen Leadership Conference this summer on the subject, and our teens have asked for further discussion on how to handle this in school.
I thought this was a good article for helping parents have meaningful talks with our kids.
Contact me if you have further suggestions or questions on addressing this or other topics.