![]() It’s short, and over 27 million copies in over 100 languages have been distributed-so the ideas in it have been tested.īut don’t just leave it there. An easy place to start is Josh McDowell’s book, More Than a Carpenter. Attend workshops, visit museums, read good books together … anything you can do to unpack solid historical evidence for the Bible. So help strengthen his confidence in the Book that is the basis of everything Christians believe. I guarantee your son will encounter this argument in college, if he hasn’t already. This is one of the most common misconceptions about Christianity-that the Bible is an out-of-date book that has changed so much that no one can trust any of the words. “Well, if you’ll tolerate me just a little longer, and if you can be open minded enough, I’ll try to make a case as to why the Bible is actually reliable.” “So let’s not even bring that into the conversation.” Notice that he wasn’t even able to say the word “Bible.” “Oh, everyone knows you can’t trust that,” he said in an incredulous and dismissive tone. A guy once said to me, “On what basis can you say that Jesus was actually a real person?” When I talked with students, one of the main objections to Christianity was the reliability of the Bible. Help him gain trust and confidence in the authority of God’s Word.įor several years I worked in campus ministry. So how do you help your teenage son make his faith his own while he’s in your home? Is that even possible? There are no guarantees this will happen under your watch, but there are a few steps you can take to create the right environment for him to grow. In the fourth verse of 3 John, it says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” But your greatest fear for him, and your greatest joy, needs to be centered on his spiritual growth. It took a couple of messy years, and I’d do things differently if possible, but it was absolutely critical.Īs you think of your teenage son, what is your greatest fear? Is it bodily injury? Sexual immorality? Failing out of school? Addiction to drugs or alcohol? These are certainly legitimate concerns. Thus started the process of learning how to make my faith my own. I realized that my faith had to be something I owned completely, not just an accidental parental spillover. Because there is no greater fear as a teen than the thought that you may have unknowingly become like your parents. It was an important internal conversation that drove me to a really difficult question: “So am I a Christian simply because I followed what my parents believe?” Did that mean they are all wrong? Or that I was wrong in my beliefs? Or did it mean anything at all? But early in college I was accosted with the actuality that there are not just millions, but billions of people in the world who are not Christians. I had grown up in a great church, had a high regard for the Bible, and was confident I was a Christian. ![]() I remember wrestling with the idea of having a personal faith for the first time. 10 Ideas to Challenge Your Teenage Son to Make His Faith His Own ![]()
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