What Your Children Tell Me

I work with a teen youth group at my church. They are a great group a kids, and they keep me young. Today the subject somehow turned to parents. I asked the question: Do you want to have a good relationship with your parents?

Some of the answers were really sweet. One girl said she loves being close with her parents. She wants to be the girl who at 20 years old will still sit on her Daddy's lap.

One kid told me how her whole family will go downstairs and all hang out together watching movies. She also talked about how she loves eating together as a family.

Another kid quietly said how she would do anything to have that. She said they only eat together at the table as a family when she is in trouble as a punishment. She is sad that her mom never asks her how her day was, and would love to have a family dinner all at the table just to have time to talk.

If you are a parent reading this, know this: even if they act otherwise: your teen wants to talk to you, wants to spend time with you, wants to know that you care about their day, and wants you to be a part of their life. While this all came up in todays conversations...it's not the 1st time I've heard statements similar to all of these, from different kids.

Life is precious, time is short, and homes should be a sanctuary. What is one thing you can do, in my opinion, to strengthen family bonds. Eat at least one meal all together around a table with the television turned off. Talk about eachothers day, find out what is going on in eachothers life, pray together. They might act like they are "too cool" for family time, but they love it and crave for it.

Happy Sunday!