Kelly Heath

The Surrendered Life

Connect With Your Kids, Family, Parenting ·

Be the First to Say You’re Sorry (7 Ways to Connect with Your Teen: Part 6)

It happens to all of us. We are in the middle of what we think is a perfectly normal conversation with our teen, when suddenly voices get louder, tears fall, and all you-know-what breaks loose!

Or maybe we make a promise with every intention of fulfilling it; only, we forget to check our schedule first or something important pops up. We try to explain or justify our predicament, but our words ring hollow to the disappointed ears of our teen.

Sooner or later, we all find ourselves in conflict of some sort with our teenagers, wondering who will be the first to say sorry. Can I give you some advice?

Most of the time, it should be you.

Wait, what?…

Connect With Your Kids, Family, Uncategorized ·

Take Advantage of their Rhythms (7 Ways to Connect with Your Teen, Part 5)

One of the first things I learned in Student Ministry is that teens have certain rhythms: patterns and trends of how and when they are willing to talk. Knowing these rhythms can make all the difference in reaching a teen’s heart, which is essential not just for discipleship, but for building relationships in general.

But how in the world do you figure out what those rhythms are? It’s pretty simple, really— we just have to pay attention. Here are some practical ways to help you discover and take advantage of your teen’s rhythms…

Connect With Your Kids, Family ·

Engage in the Hard Conversations (7 Ways to Connect with Your Teen, Part 4)

When is the last time your teen initiated a hard conversation all on their own? Wouldn’t it be nice if it always happened that way?

While we’re daydreaming, what if before they brought it up, they sent us an email outlining all their questions, giving us adequate time to look up Bible verses and expert answers? And once we were ready, what if they sat at our feet, soaking every word of wisdom like it was the latest Marvel movie?

Unfortunately, you and I both know that’s not how it works.

Sometimes, if we’re lucky, our teens do come to us with their questions. More often, though, we sense something is going on with them or notice them wrestling with something in current culture, and it’s up to us to make those conversations happen. How do we do it? Here are a few tips on how to approach these hard conversations…

Connect With Your Kids ·

7 Ways to Connect with Your Teen (Part 1: Pray)

The “teen years” can be difficult. Relating with our teens on a deep level can be even more difficult. But I believe being intentional about connecting with our teens is the best investment we can make!

While there is no formula for perfect parenting, I want to share 7 practical ways you can connect with your teen. For the next seven weeks, we will talk about each of these areas in more detail and how they can positively influence our relationship with our teens.

Let’s start with PRAYER…

Faith ·

31 Days of Praying Scripture Over Your Teens & College Students: Week 5

Well, friends, here are the last few prayers in our 31 Days of Praying Scripture series. (If you are just finding this, you can find the first post in the series here.) I hope this has been helpful for you as you pray for the teens and college students in your life. More than that, I am excited to think about all the unseen ways God is working in response to our prayers! Thank you for joining me on this journey.

I am finishing up the printable version of these prayers, so stay tuned later this week for how you can access it!

Okay, enough chit-chat… Let’s get to praying!

Faith, Uncategorized ·

31 Days of Praying Scripture Over Our Teens & College Students: Week Three

How are you doing? Is it still exciting, or are you ready for it to be over? Has it impassioned you to be in God’s Word and to pray intentionally for the teenagers in your life? For those of you in the process of dropping kids off at college, are the promises of God bringing you peace? I hope so!

Selfishly, this series has reignited my prayer life in a way that has been dormant for awhile. While I wrote this series as a way to be intentional about praying for my own children, I have especially enjoyed praying for yours! So thank you to those of you who added names in the Facebook comments. I trust God to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine in each of their lives!

Faith, Family, Parenting, Poetry ·

31 Days of Praying Scripture Over Your Teens & College Students: Week 1

I am SUPER excited about partnering with you this month as we pray Scripture over our college students and teens! As mentioned in my previous post, these are not “perfect verses” or perfect prayers. They are simply a place to start…

There is power in prayer, but there is even more power in the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” As we pray the Word of God over the young adults and children in our lives, I believe that God will be working in ways we may not see here on earth, but that will impact His kingdom eternally.

May it be so.

Faith, Family ·

The Best Way to Prepare for Something New

If you are anything like me, I tend to pray either very generally for my kids (Lord, let them love You!) or very selfishly (Lord, keep them safe. Lord, don’t let me kill them if they sass me again!). While there is nothing wrong with these prayers- I am a firm believer that God loves for us to come to Him with whatever is on our hearts- I have found that praying God’s Word releases an entirely different kind of power.

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