TRUST AND OBEY

Parents, I was reviewing a portion of Paul Tripp’s Age of Opportunity today, and came across this passage that is so helpful. It’s a lengthy section, but I’m offering it here for your review, because I think these concepts have the power to clarify the (often murky) agenda that confront parents and teens in real-life situations. Enjoy.

We need to teach our teenagers what it means to live for God where they live every day, in all those unspectacular moments at home, at school, or with friends.  There are two questions that, if regularly asked, will bring God into every one of those moments.  We want to ask them of our teenagers until they learn to ask them of themselves.  They are summarized by these two words: trust and obey.

Let me start with the second word.  In every situation we want our teenagers to have a heart for God.  We want them to have the goal of living to please him.  So we must encourage them in every situation to ask, “What, in this situation, are the things that God calls me to do that I cannot pass on to anyone else?”

This question requires them to be concrete and specific in the way they think about their calling from God.  One the teenager has biblically clarified those responsibilities, the only proper response is to obey.

The word trust points the teenager to the fact that he has limits.  There are important things in every situation that need to change, yet are outside of the teenager’s control.  They are not his responsibility because they are beyond his ability to produce.  These areas must be entrusted to God.  So we need to get our teens to ask this question: “What, in this situation, are the things I need to entrust into God’s capable and loving hands?”

Teenagers tend to get these areas confused (and so do adults).  They try to do things that are God’s job and they forget to do the things that he has called them to do.

-Paul Tripp, Age of Opportunity, pp. 60-61.

Try this at home!  The next difficult situation that arises, engage in a discussion:

• OBEY: “What, in this situation, are the things that God calls me to do that I cannot pass on to anyone else?”
• TRUST: “What, in this situation, are the things I need to entrust into God’s capable and loving hands?”

Categories: Thursday Thoughts For Parents