Helping Kids Find Their Identity in Christ
Worth Your Time!
Resource Recommendations to Help You Parent and Mentor Most Effectively
This Week's Recommendation:
"Grounded in Grace: Helping Kids Build Their Identity in Christ"
Book by Jonathan D. Holmes
Buy It Here
Why It Matters
It can be a struggle for any of us to find our identity only in God, but it's especially difficult for teenagers who are figuring out who they are. Grounded in Grace is an excellent tool for parents and other adults who guide teens on this journey. It's a short book with only 104 pages, but it's packed with great, biblically solid content.
Holmes spends the first couple chapters exploring identity-formation processes and the problems with the modern process. The rest of the book focuses on the 5 most common places teens find their identity apart from God, dividing them into two categories: "I am what I do" (academics, athletics, and good works) and "I am what I feel" (gender and sexuality).
While I see the first category the most in the students with whom I work in Christian schools, I do see students struggle in the second category as well. Cell phones and social media are the cultural equalizer between public and private schools, as the same online content shapes students' worldviews. Even if a student's personal online access is limited, most of his/her peers' online access isn't, and they absorb a lot from their peers at school. The content of this book is important for any teen, whether they're in a private school or a public school and whether they have a lot of online access or a little.
How to Use it
Page 13 has an excellent chart describing how the traditional, modern, and gospel identity-formation processes answer 7 key identity questions. This chart could form the basis of an extended conversation (one-time or ongoing) with a teen, while you also incorporate what you learn throughout the rest of the book.
When beginning a conversation on identity, find out what a teen already believes about it, using the 7 questions as a guide. Then ask them why they believe that and explore where those ideas come from.
Each chapter contains a section titled, "How Can Parents Help?" Parents and other adults may find this section especially helpful as they guide teens.
Share your own struggles with identity. Where did you put your identity at their age, and where are you tempted to put it now?
Ask teens if there are any other areas in which they think teens often find their identities that aren't included in this book.
Ask teens where they think their friends and other peers find their identities and then ask them about their struggle with where they find their own identity. As I always encourage, ask about their friends first.
Share this book with others!
Buy It Here
Are you looking for a teen devotional for a Christmas present? Here are a few I've recommended!