LISTENING
Moving Beyond Wah, Wah Wah...
Do
you remember Charlie Brown’s teacher or grandmother or whatever adult
happened to be on the other end of that telephone line with him? The
only conversation we ever heard Charlie Brown have with them was
punctuated with “Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah…” as the adults response to him. Do you feel that it is also all your teenager hears when you speak? Wah, wah, wah!
Let
me ask you a question you may have never considered. Do our teenagers
think that is all we hear when they try to talk to us? Hmmm.
Hadn’t thought of that? Couldn’t possibly be! Here is a great test to
see if that is true. After your teen talks, do you start your part
with the phrase, “Yes, but….”? If so, that means you probably haven’t
listened. You have spent the time that they were talking formulating a
response, or an answer, or even a brilliant idea that they just have to
hear since it is coming from parental wisdom!
I
think you probably have many of the answers to so many of your teens
questions and problems. You have experience and age on your side! But
sometimes the best lessons your teen will ever learn, and the lessons
that stick the hardest are the ones that they learn themselves. Without
the correct answer, but with the listening ear of their biggest fan.
You!
Often we beg God to make our teen just listen. How about we, as parents, first ask Him to give us an ear, not just to hear, but to listen!
The
next part of this week’s online parenting class is a short video that
furthers the conversation. I’d love to hear what you think of it: https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/84188976/ac8a01662e
No comments:
Post a Comment