So me and my friend, Lucas, were having a theological conversation today and I realized something I’m not sure I realized before. FAITH AND HOPE GO HAND IN HAND. But more than that faith precedes hope. So even if an atheist says, “I don’t have faith in anything, but I hope this will happen,” they are missing the point that in order to have any hope, you have faith in something. I’ll explain what I think…
Faith is believing in something unseen and hope is a trusting or desiring an outcome in something or someone. But you cannot have hope without first having faith. For instance, I walk into a dark room and believe in faith that when I flip the switch the light will come on. With that faith I have hope that I will be able to see.
Another example is when someone has the flu they may say, “With this medicine, I’ll feel better in a few days.” The faith is in the medicine and the hope is feeling better in a few days. This faith may change to a doctor or faith in their body’s natural heal abilities, but either way ones faith is in something.
So apply this to having hope in life after death. Just about everybody wants and desiresfor there to be a heaven. So there is a hope in this being so. But what do we based this on? We as Christians have faith in Christ’s power of resurrection, thus giving us HOPE for salvation and eternal life. We may all hope for everlasting life but what is that hope based on? I believe fully, that FAITH in Jesus Christ is the only HOPE for eternal life.
As a follow up to my first blog on peer pressure, I want to give parents some practical thoughts on helping your teen engage in positive peer relationships.
Studies show that teens that perceive that they have a high degree of freedom in daily activities relates to problem behavior and negative choices with peers. But at the same time, teens who felt their parents were too intrusive tended to part take in problem behavior and negative choices with peers. So what can parents do? Too much freedom equals problems and too little freedom equals problem behaviors.
Though I realize there may be other factors, I think it all comes down to a healthy balance in freedom. The best way to flesh this out is by being an authoritative parent. This is the best of the parenting styles. An authoritative parent encourages Independence but still places limits and controls on their actions. Negotiation and communication is the key to this parenting style. If you want some more information check out this resource: http://www.family.org/parenting/A000003094.cfm
Tonight we kicked off a new series called “The Moment of Truth- Putting Your Friendships to the Test.” This is all about the authenticity of our friendships and tonight we specifically talked about peer pressure. I asked the question, “Are you a thermometer or a thermostat?” Do you change to the environment you are in or do you change the environment you are in?
So what role do parents play in teens choosing friends. Often times parents perceive that they have little authority in teen’s choices in the area of peer relations. But I don’t think this is entirely true. Adolescents show strong motivation to be with their peers and become independent. However, this does not mean that peer involvement is unrelated to parent-teen relationships. Teens live in a connected world with parents and peers.
How are they connected? By the parents’ choice of neighborhoods, churches, schools, and their own friends influence the choices in which their teens are going to make in making friends. Parents can also model or coach their teens in ways of relating to friends. Some parents recommend certain strategies for their teens to relate to their peers. For instance, these parents talked about different way to handle and settle conflict and ways to become less shy. They also encouraged their teens to patient and resist peer pressure. One study showed that young teens talked more with their mothers about peer pressure than with their fathers (Gauze, 1994).
The bottom line is you as a parent have a voice and often more important than your teen makes it out to be. I’ll post later on more practical steps on helping your teen in peer relations.
Will
Source: Santrock, J(2008). Adolescence (12th ed). New York:McGraw-Hill.
