Out of Teenagers

For more than 20 years, our home was blessed by the presence of teenagers. But now that our youngest is in her late teens, my wife and I are all out of teenagers.
Those years were full of challenges and demands that sometimes zapped our strength and took all our mental and emotional reserves. We rejoiced the trills of success and struggled through their grieved. As I look back on our experiment in parenting, we noticed some valuable lessons :-

1) Some teens follow life in a straight line, while others zig-zag along life's pathway. It's best to 'zig' with them in love and with courage.
2) Teenagers need unconditional love because they live in a conditional world.

Romans 5 : 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
3) A love of God's Word is vital to successfully transfer faith from one generation to the next.

4) Teens need to develop a relationship with Christ that is based not on rules but on a deep love of Jesus.

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Proverbs 22 : 6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Psalm 128 : 3
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.

DON'T MERELY SPEND TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN - INVEST IN IT.