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Should Teens Be Forced To Attend Church?

Hi,

I have been using the parenting strategies since July. Things were going well, and my son even earned the privilege of a driving permit in October, which would allow him to take his driving test to have a driver's license. If he had stayed on track, he would have had his driver's test scheduled in November. However, within 1 week of earning the driving permit, he began to become rebellious again, argumentative, and sloppy or forgetful about his chores. I asked him what was bothering him, but he refused to say; he only had insults for me.

In the beginning of November, my son said that it was not fair for us to make him attend church on Sundays. I reminded him that it was a house rule that was agreed to by him. He told me that he did not believe there was anything after a person dies. I did not argue with him. 2 days after that statement, my son was hospitalized for 8 days because of seizures. He had over 60 seizures in that time span. My son was upset with me because we prayed for him-the seizures stopped.

He is at home now and has refused to go to church today. I repeated the request for him to be ready by 9am. I waited 10 minutes, and issued a warning of the consequence. I took his game controller when he did not get up. He told me that he was taking a stand for his faith. He told me he was agnostic 2 weeks ago.

This looks like a power struggle to me. However, I don't believe my husband will back down and let this go once he finds out. My husband strongly believes that his household will serve the Lord (at the least attend church). I believe this also, but would prefer to avoid the power struggle first.

What strategy should I have used? Once again, I will probably be in the cross fire between my son and his step-father.


Click here for my response...

1 comment:

dogvacay labor of love puppy shack said...

I understand . I also understand that teens need independence and need to be in their peer group it has happened to me. It killed me to let go but I did. I asked what the problem was. She told me I wouldn't understand. I played it down with no anger and said try me I'm all ears.My daughter said mom it's all old people and I want to have my own walk with the Lord. I thought hmmm she'll probably play hookie. No she never played hookie she was invited to a chruch focused all towards youth. It has been great. She goes with us like once a month but is in chruch even more and is more involved in missions ,her boyfriend got saved and is in leadership and it's brought very positive changes and improved our relationship greatly. Shoving God down someone's throat doesn't work but what does work is prayer and the Holy Spirit. God told me one day quit playing Holy Spirit so I did reluctantly but it has been fixed greatly. He needs to make his own mistakes and mature from them. Trust me with those seisures he will call on God and then he alone will exsperience Him. Best to you!!!!

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