I help teenagers, parents, and mentors live into their
calling and navigate the teen years with joy and purpose.
Are you a parent of young children who is dreading the teen years?
Are you a parent of a teenager who needs help navigating these crazy, stressful teen years?
Are you someone who works with teenagers who desires to have the greatest impact possible as you point them to Jesus?
Are you a teen who wants to follow Jesus but you need help knowing what that means and how to do it?
The teen years are packed with important decisions, a variety of temptations, and an abundance of voices trying fervently to lead students astray. In the midst of our rapidly declining moral culture, teens and young adults are discarding their parents’ faith and values in record numbers. Teenagers are looking for something (or Someone) to anchor them in the storm, and Christian parents are desperate to help their kids grow solid roots before they enter adulthood.
I’m here to help!
Meet Kelly
After working with teens for over thirty years and raising 4 teenagers with my husband, Jeff, I am passionate about helping teens flesh out what it means to follow Jesus and encouraging parents and mentors to make the most of the teen years. I write and speak about biblical faith, spiritual growth, and navigating the challenges that inevitably occur while trying to grow up/parent in a faith-hostile culture. I also love to guide and encourage people who work with teens to live into their calling with clarity, purpose, and joy. I’m glad you’re here!
Resources for Parents & Teens
Kelly loves talking to teens and parents about Jesus and how they can grow in their faith and strengthen their relationships. Check out the Resources section for helpful articles geared towards parents, teens, and young adults.
Workshops & Speaking
Do you need a speaker for your next event? Kelly has over 30 years experience as a Bible teacher and public speaker. She speaks to teens, parents, women, and student ministry leaders. Contact her for your next event or to host a “Cultivating a Circle of Influence” workshop.
Circle of Influence Book
Circle of Influence: Cultivating the Power of Mentorship in Your Teen’s Life helps parents purposefully surround their teens with adult mentors who will shape their teen’s faith and guide their decisions so they don’t have to navigate these crucial years alone.
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Circle of Influence: Cultivating the power of mentorship in your teen’s life
As our children approach the teen years, there is a natural separation that occurs in their attempt to become more independent. Unfortunately, the teen years are also packed with important decisions, temptations, and an abundance of voices trying fervently to lead them astray. In the midst of our rapidly declining moral culture, teens and young adults are discarding their parents’ faith and values in record numbers.
What if parents could more easily encourage their teen’s independence without fearing how it will affect their future? How do we help our teens get the support they need?
Circle of Influence: Cultivating the Power of Mentorship in Your Teen’s Life helps parents purposefully surround their teens with adult mentors who will shape their teen’s faith and guide their decisions so they don’t have to navigate these crucial years alone.
Recent Blog Posts:
Change How You Parent: Fear or Faith?
It is really hard to watch our kids walking that line between right and wrong, tip-toeing as close as they can to the dark without actually falling in. Jeff and I have encountered these types of struggles on multiple occasions with our children, so I feel your pain.
Jeff is better about seeing the big picture, but if I’m honest with you, I pretty much tend to freak out. I’m afraid they are going to ruin their life. I’m afraid they are going to walk away from Jesus. I’m afraid they are going to become everything I have invested so much time and energy guarding against!
I’m just plain afraid. And I begin to parent out of fear…
Asking for Help: Why it’s Hard, Why We Should, and How to Do it
When is the last time you asked someone for help? Was it hard for you?
For me, it depends on what it is. Earlier this week, we changed plans and needed a last minute T-shirt design for a college ministry retreat. I had a choice. I could spend several hours attempting to design something that, let’s face it, would look awful no matter how much time I invested in it. Or I could text a friend and ask for help.
I am not kidding; the first draft of the design was completed within three minutes of the text.
THREE MINUTES!
Umm, yeah, I think that was a good decision!
But there are other times when I am not so quick to ask for help…
Finding Grace When You Feel Like an Imposter
…When Jeff and I brought Sarah home from the hospital that first night, I felt like a total fraud.
All that experience when out the window, and I was simply a girl holding a baby, wondering what in the world we were supposed to do now. Those nurses who sent her home with us were somehow expecting us to keep this tiny creature alive, and the burden of that responsibility was heavier than anything I’d ever carried in my life!
We managed to survive that first night, but it turned out that was only the beginning. Three more babies followed; and I was supposed to know how to sleep train and potty train, how to disciple and discipline, how to braid hair and build Star Wars things with legos!
These days I am supposed to know how to navigate phones and social media and friend drama and hormones. I have pretended my way through all sorts of adolescent crises, depending 100% on the Holy Spirit, and feeling like a charlatan 99% of the time.
Imposter Syndrome is a real thing, y’all.
But here’s the deal— just because I didn’t feel qualified to do any of those things didn’t mean I wasn’t…