The Space Between is a new book by Walt Mueller, the president of CPYU.  The goal of this book is to help parents understand the changes your teen is experiencing, and help you effectively parent them.  I am excited about this book and have a number of copies to give parents. A review is posted below.

Parents, are you looking for a book that will help you survive your children’s growth through their teenage years? I recently completed Dr Walt Mueller’s book “The Space Between, A Parent’s Guide to Teenage Development”. Dr Mueller has more than 30 years of experience working with teens and is the founder and president of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. Dr Mueller starts his book out with an aptly shared story about catching his son having an “afternoon snack”. He catches his son with his head tipped back pouring Italian dressing on a mouthful of salad while standing at the refrigerator. The author says he was “both proud and horrified” by the event. How many of us have share similar experiences with our teens? It is this mixture of pride, horror, stress, and change that we all experience as parents as we lead our teens through adolescence. In chapter 6 of his book, Dr Mueller describe adolescence this way: I have found it helpful to visualize the teenage years as “the earthquake of adolescence”; They arrive swiftly, pass quickly and leave the landscape of a child’s life radically altered”. In this book Dr. Mueller’s describes our teenagers Physical, Social, Intellectual, Emotional, Moral and Spiritual changes. As you read the chapters the author shares with you perspectives, tips and methods to help you understand and deal with the flood of changes. As cornerstone of this book, he shares biblical references to help you “Experience the joy of going deeper with God and depending upon Him during the challenges of adolescence”. I found this insightful book to be helpful for me as a parent of 3 as well as one of the leaders of the youth at our church. It helped me get a better understanding of the pressures on our teens today as well as help me gain perspectives on how to love them, guide them and grow them in Christ during this time of upheaval.  - Tom Clark

We are continuing to talk about how the Bible is REALLY relevant to our lives.  Last night we talked about selfishness and how we are really selfish sometimes.  How does that effect us?  How does that effect our relationships and change the way we act toward others.

We presented two verses to talk about: James 3:16 and Luke 9:23

Take some time and talk with your students about what they are selfish with.  Let them know what you are selfish with and share honestly with them.  Then agree with them to focus this week on not being selfish and see how it effects your relationships and life.

3 Weeks ago I challenged our middle school students to give to Blood:Water Mission. We have installed a mailbox in the Den where students can give their money and everything they give on Wednesday night through the end of the year will be given to B:W.  So far we have given over $46 to help provide clean blood and water for Africans.

In the spirit of Lent (also known as giving something up) I am challenging our students to give up drinks for 40 days.  The idea is to drink only water for 40 days and give the money you save to B:W to help provide clean water for villages in Africa.  Encourage your students to join in on this, do it as a family, and come together to help in this cause.  We will be handing out “scorecards” on Wednesday night to help students keep track of their progress and you can find other resources on the B:W website.

Here is the Parent Consent Form for 2008.  If you fill this out and turn it in your student is covered for the whole year!  Yeah, that’s right only once per year!

Parent Consent Form 2008

“According to The New York Times, in the United States, 82 percent of cellphone owners said that they never used text messaging” - textually.org. Texting has become huge!  Do words like T9, LOL, or J/K cause your brain to ache?  If you are one of the 82 percent of people who have never sent a text message the teenagers are making up for you.  In the first quarter of 2008 Verizon handeled 58,000,000 texts!  That is only for one quarter of the year, in one country.  Texting has become huge!

This phenomenon has led to a new language being developed that parents and others who don’t text can’t read.  Teenagers are telling each other all kinds of things that adults have no idea of.

In order to equip you, as a parent or adult, The Center for Parent and Youth Understanding has created a list of texting acronyms. I think you will be surprised at some of the shorthand you see.  Check it out and be open to discussing this with your kids.