Pastor Ben's Blog
Thursday, 24 July 2008

I often talk to teenagers about filters. We all know that filters separate what they are designed to separate.  Air filters in your car, home or work are designed to separate impurities in the air. They accomplish this because they were designed to.  I think every one of us has designed a cultural filter. This filter helps us decide what will and won’t influence us from culture. As followers of Christ our filters often look much different from the rest of the world because the design of our filter has been altered by the Holy Spirit. Living a life in surrender to Christ means that our filters are based on the principles Christ employed in his life. That’s a high standard I know, but we’ve been given the Holy Spirit to empower and equip us as we walk in this world without being of it.

As a parent you’ve had a lot more time to design your filter to separate the things that you feel belong or don’t belong in your life or family. The question is how did you arrive at those conclusions? You’ll need to have an answer to this question because your teenagers will press you. As a parent I believe it is your responsibility to help your children develop strong Christ-centered filters. This only happens through discussion and experience.

I’m sure you’ve experienced times when you thought that your kid’s filter was totally broken and felt discouraged. Don’t be, see it as an opportunity to help them design a more mature filter. The best thing you can do is be intentional about taking opportunities to help them design their filter when they aren’t in trouble. Watch a music video or movie together and help them to think critically about the message or theme of what you’ve just watched. This will sharpen their filtering skills. Be aware, along the way you’ll probably feel challenged yourself about the filter you’ve designed. It will lead to growth for both of you.

One day your students won’t have your filter in place anymore and I’m sure that you want to be confident that they have the tools and understanding to design a Spirit-led and Christ-centered filter for the things they will encounter. Take the time to read through the rest of this newsletter because it is full of great suggestions for helping you guide your teenagers as they develop their own filter.