The Session: Giving our Children Tough Love

Romans 8:38–39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Emotions, Teens, and Hormones

• Emotions can be very tumultuous for a teen. Emotions for teenagers can be like unto the life interruption that pre menopause, menopause, and a midlife crisis for a man
• If the upheaval were strictly environmentally driven, it would be hard to predict its onset.
• If it’s hormonally driven, it can be very predictable. Reality suggests it is predictable.
• It has the capability of changing a person’s attitude. An attitude is the total of what a person’s thinking and feeling. When you put it together, you have their attitude.
• The emotional changes coincide with the physical maturation of a teen.
• Human chemistry goes crazy for a period of time. The chemistry issues also impact a teens, mind and decision-making process.
• At the age of 13 to 14, boys awaken to a whole New World, and all of a sudden becomes very aware of what he feels. He can be very stressed by social situations and the fear of being ridicule and embarrassed.

Adolescent society is dominated by beauty for girls & physical maturation for boys.

• The girls beauty is scary for boys (TERRIFYING, ACTUALLY...SCOTT)
• Boys physical characteristics that help in sports intimidate physically immature boys (SCOTT ALWAYS WANTED A 6 PACK)
• Physical strength in boys facilitates the bully into hurting the weaker boys
• The junior/senior prom is dominated by the fear of rejection reaction and ridicule
• The fear of going to school due to harassment and humiliation

Our memories of teen life for our children and us…OH, NOW YOU’RE MEDDLIN’!

Have a New Kid by Friday, by Kevin Lehman

• Kevin promotes tough love by letting our teen children know if they are disrespectful to us that we are less cooperative. A great example would be you were disrespectful to me, so I am not taking you to your friend’s house tonight.

Reality Therapy

• Reality therapy was created by William Glasser to help troubled teens.
• Similar to Kevin Lehman, reality therapy lets teens learn on their own. We allow life to teach them and not be the heavy ourselves. A great example is if they need to be ready to catch the team bus to one of their sporting events, but they’re poking around and not motivated to get there on time, we allow them to miss the bus.

ANY FINAL THOUGHTS FROM DR. DOBSON THAT YOU STUDIED OVER THE YEARS?

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To reach Tom Russell, visit his website at https://www.heritagechristiancounselingofmansfield.com or email Tom at tom.hccm@gmail.com