We’ve determined that communication is a two way street. We know that part of communication is being able to speak well - to be able to string together our thoughts and feelings in words that make sense; or in our parenting, the ability to give instructions or guidance well.

But we know the other piece of communication has to do with what happens when we stop speaking - it has to do with listening.

We all have an emotional tank. Maybe you’ve heard how everyone has a bucket and that you should “be a bucket filler.” Coming from a set of children’s books, “Have you filled a bucket today?, How Full is your bucket? And Fill a Bucket” - the concept is that everyone walks around day after day with an invisible bucket above their heads. Throughout the day, their buckets can be filled or emptied based upon the things that have happened to them. Someone says nice words to them - that adds to their bucket. Mean words are bucket emptiers. As you fill someone else’s bucket, yours gets filled as well. It’s hard to fill others buckets when yours is empty and having an empty bucket in general is a struggle. This concept teaches kindness and love but also that your actions not only affect yourself but those around you.

We want to be the ones who help shape what our teens see and believe about the world around them and who God is. So it’s important that we are able to communicate well with our teens.

So what does it look like to have healthy communication with our teens? How do we talk to our teens when they don’t want to talk to us?

God has placed us in an authority position over our kids and teens so that we may instruct them in His ways. In order for us to be able to fulfill that calling, good communication with our children is essential.

As we finish out 2020, a hard year for most of us, and we look to the future - many of us are spending time reflecting and thinking about the things to come. A common practice at the start of any new year is a “New Year’s Resolution” - it’s a tradition in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, set out to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve their life.

Maybe this year’s Christmas looks different than years past. Maybe you won’t be celebrating with the whole family - maybe some can’t travel or you want to be sure you don’t get anyone sick.  Maybe the presents under the tree are fewer. Perhaps the traditions you’ve always done can’t happen this year. And while that’s hard and challenging (I won’t gloss over the fact that that is hard and something to grieve)... we know that, as followers of Christ, that all those extras don’t really matter - they aren’t the reason we celebrate - we can still have an enjoyable Christmas because of Jesus.

Throughout these last 9 months, you’ve likely had a million emotions - anxiety, worry, depression, happiness, joy, frustration, impatience, the list goes on and on. Throughout all of that - you’ve been caring for and schooling your kids and teens constantly, likely without the same amount of support as pre-COVID. In today’s podcast, we want to urge you to take time to care for yourself during this season as well.

“In a culture that uses this season to get children to dream about how their lives would be made better by possessing a certain material thing, where Christmas has been reduced to a shopper’s nightmare and a retailer’s dream, it is vital to draw the wonder of our children away from the next great toy and toward the wonder of the coming of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus.” - Paul David Tripp

Gratitude is a response to God’s goodness, our witness to the world, and a way to glorify God.