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Steve Ward

How Parents Care For Their Family in a Crisis

This article is the last of a series on “Parenting in a Crisis.” If one of your kids is struggling and creating a crisis in the family, you will need all the help you can get. Use the other resources mentioned below to keep moving forward. If that journey takes your child into a recovery program, understand that this may be the best thing that ever happened to them, and it could lead them toward a much happier life.

How to Take the Right Steps in a Family Crisis

If your son or daughter is continuing to make bad choices that are creating a crisis in your family, you will need to accelerate the steps you are taking. It is far better to adjust what you are doing before things get worse rather than delaying and naively hoping they will get better on their own.

How Education Can Help Prevent a Crisis

Parenting is hard, and it’s tougher when your kids struggle. This is likely their and your first time dealing with such a situation, so you need to keep learning to help you make good choices on what to do. Some parents wait too late to act but know that doing nothing may be the worst thing you can do.

How Being Connected Helps Your Kids in a Crisis

The way you connect with your kids helps them or hurts them, especially in a crisis. Communication is a critical part of your relationship, and your role in that is within your control. If you live out a good example and encourage positive connections for your kids, it can make a huge difference.

How Parents Can See a Crisis Before It Happens

If you feel something bad is going on with your kids, you’re probably right. It’s critical to understand the situation to help you make wise decisions. That takes time and energy, and it calls for empathy and wisdom. Because you never want to say, “We didn’t know their situation was that serious.”

How Parents Can Prepare for a Crisis

Parents and care givers must understand that harmful issues such as substance abuse or mental health can happen to any kid in any family, and no parent ever wants to say, “We didn’t think it could happen to us.” If you’re facing or fearing a crisis, it’s time to take action. Now!

How to Be a Good Steward of Your Role as a Parent

Parents are given an assignment—for a time—to raise their kids to the best of their ability. Being a good steward of that God-given role includes putting a thoughtful plan in place, learning and adjusting the plan as needed, and getting help along the way. Then, praying for God’s strength every day.

How to Disciple Your Kids for the Teenage Years

It’s critical to coach and guide your kids as they grow up, and that includes during the sometimes-risky teenage years. Their lives and well-being are too important to ignore this God-given responsibility. We are all asked to “go and make disciples,” and the best place to start is with your kids.

How Teenagers Find the Community They Need

All of us need community, and this especially includes teenagers. Young people desperately want to fit in somewhere they feel they belong. Otherwise, they will look for connection—sometimes in unhealthy places—or turn to isolation instead. Parents can provide a sense of belonging in the family and model how their kids can develop healthy community with others as well.