Yelling at Your Frustrating Teen? - Try This Instead.

Have you ever found yourself yelling and didn't want to? Perhaps you've asked how can my child be so disrespectful. All humans crave healthy family relationships because God created us to be creatures of relationship. Thankfully, Christ has shown us how to fix these relational mistakes that we've made. We must do it His way. Matthew 18 sets out several simple concepts on how to go about getting a respectful relationship with your family back. The first concept that most people miss in a disagreement is that correction is best accomplished in private. Verse 15a says that "if your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private."  It is so easy to get caught up in the emotion of the moment and blow up in front of other family members or even worse, friends or extended family.  When done in private, it takes all of the other factors out of the situation besides the desires of the two parties. If you act in the moment and lash out with emotion in front of others, it is most likely sinful and has bad consequences result even if you were right in the argument.

It is better to separate yourself from the person, take time to cool down, pray and ask for wisdom and patience. Then you can come together again and confront and hopefully reconcile. Another thing  this does is shows that you care about your relationship with them enough to focus on it specifically and not just seem to blow your stack. 

15b says"...if he listens to you, you have won your brother." The beautiful thing about confrontation is once it is through and all is forgiven, the relationship is restored to its fullest level of trust.

Sometimes relationships fly out of control over time and reconciliation isn't as easy as this first step.  Other outside help is needed to deal with angry teens who are hurting and therefore hurting others. When you get to this point, we would be glad to try and help at Victory Academy for Boys.  Contact us for a free consultation and advice. Family relationships sometimes are very hard to work on, but in the long run, it is worth it.