I just finished the 2nd message in our current series at E3, House Party, where students are learning how to do their part in making their house a happy home.  We're taking each week of the series and likening it to a room in our house.

Week 1 was the Living Room where we interact with our familiy members, and we talked about how we can live under God's authority by honoring our parents so that we can experience God's maximum blessing.  God didn't place students on the earth to "straighten" out their parents. (Although students can help their parents stop wearing socks with their sandals and get with the program when it comes to fashion. haha)   Parents are to help us grow and become everything God desires for us to be. So we talked about honor and obedience from Ephesians 6:1. It was an encouraging and challenging message.  I  encouraged the students to go home and reconcile their difference with their parents.  The next day, a lady came to the church office.  She didn't attend our church, but her high school daughter did come to E3 for this message.  She began to cry as she described how her daughter had come home, asked for forgiveness, and the two of them talked for hours into the night.  Wow!

Week 2 was the Bedroom, the place where students retreat, sometimes when their angry, to get away from it all.  I actually preached that message last night.  It was so fun.  I talked about how a slammed door to our room leads to a slammed door on our heart and when that happens we rob ourselves of the blessing that a great family can give us. 1 Cornithians 13:5 in The Message Bible tells us that "love keeps no records of wrongs".  So intead of students and parents expecting perfection out of one another, they can learn how to work things out in an emotionally healthy way even when the tension gets thick. 

I remember one time when I was a teen, I got angry at my parents in the living room, said things I shouldn't have said and then ran away to my room and slammed the door and locked it.  I was there a few minutes fuming mad when I heard someone moving the door knob.  In a few minutes, my dad had removed the knob, came in my room and then took the door off the hinges, and without a word he was letting me know that we were going to have a house with open hearts.  We weren't going to allow anger and rage to control us. (Ephesians 4:31)  What a lesson learned.

Next week, part #3 is the Kitchen and students will learn that just like putting together some awesome meals requires a variety of ingredients, a great family doens't just happen.  We all can bring something to the table so the family will experience everything God says we can experience.  It's been fun.  I'll write more about it later.  Thanks for reading.

Here are some questions to consider parents:

1. How emotionally connected am I with my child?
2. Does my child know that he / she can talk to me about anything?
3. Do I have unrealistic expectations of my child?
4. Do i really know where they are in their spiritual development?
5. Am I affirming my child's strengths while I am encouraging them to grow in their weak areas?