You see them waving in the air at sporting events as their words cheer on their favorite players and team.  You see them spilling out discontentment or support at protests and rallies. The signs are held as high as arms can possibly lift them, stating how you feel and where you stand.  While we don’t often walk around holding poster board signs, our attitudes and feelings can be just as obvious to others as the big block letters.  Take a minute and check yourself.  Are you holding a sign that exemplifies a good witness?  Shows the blessings that you have been given?  Are you rooting on your family, your God-team?  Remember that our sign raising passions should represent love, acceptance and understanding.  Cheer each other on to a victory!  Be your family’s biggest supporter!

Kim Trethewey

Central Kidz

This time of the school year is hard.  Parents, you might remember back to when you were in school.  January all the way until Spring Break is packed with stuff.  The weather isn’t that perfect.  There aren’t a ton of days off of school.  Sports seem to kick up a notch.  These months are all crunch time.  You probably feel it also in your family life, work, church, etc.  As you care for you kid in these months – take “stress” into consideration as you plan.  Keep pushing them to do their best – just remember to be alert for signs of stress.  Help them decompress with some fun breaks – movie nights, one on one’s with you, unstructured time to just hang-out and lot’s of verbal encouragement.  In junior high and high school, students need us to help them shoulder the load.  This can happen in a real way if we’re alert to the opportunities to help our kids decompress.

Tony Schwartz

Element Team

This weekend we are concluding our “Love Guru” series on love, relationships, and sex. Over the last few weeks we have allowed our students to write anonymous questions they might have about these three subjects. This weekend we will address everything from how to ask someone out to masturbation to pornography to how far is too far – these are some real heavy issues and no matter how incredible our team does at teaching on these issues, one weekend is not enough! I encourage you to keep the “Q & A” session with your student going. I know these topics can be awkward for parents to talk about with their student. I would encourage you to get your student involved in one of our Small Groups, where these conversations are happening between students and leaders, and where our leaders are encouraging students to be real with their parents, and seek the support of the home with these issues. Having your student in a Small Group is another way for us to partner with you when it comes to the spiritual life of your student, and can really help as you navigate these teenage years, especially when it comes to the issues of relationships and sex. 

Frank Tappe

Element- Junior High – Henderson Campus

My 8th grader didn’t take out the trash and today he was the wisest boy….

In our heated discussion (mine, not his) about the overflowing kitchen trash he said; “Mom, why should I have to do something if you are not doing it yourself?” Ok, not really an epiphany, right? We were only talking about the trash…but what he said really bothered me (in a good, constructive way).

What am I telling my children to do that I am not doing myself?

Ok, let’s look under the covers for a minute…This isn’t about the overflowing trash… (although, it’s important too!) What I am looking at is my spiritual health as a parent – mine. Am I focusing any of my time to live my faith with my child? Honestly?

Probably not as much as I could…and today… well, today was one of those days where my parenting scores (if someone kept an actual score) were low… Now, I could run to the Two42 and find every parenting book there is, but honestly, where does it start? Who does it start with?

It starts with me and my own relationship with God.

Today my 8th grader was the wisest boy…not because he didn’t take out the trash but because he (albeit unknowingly) challenged me as a parent to walk the talk!

Melissa Millwee

Childcare Coordinator

CentralKidz

Everyone has at least someone in their life that hasn’t experienced God’s grace and love, whether its the guy who you see at the coffee shop everyday, the lady in the desk next to you at work, a neighbor, or a family member, ect.  We all have these unique opportunities that God has given us to share His love with these people.  I work in a coffee shop, and instead of seeing it as the job I have to have to pays my bills, I see it as an amazing opportunity that God has given me to reach people outside of the church.  Every day I try and pray for the girls I work with and try to be loving and kind and live a real authentic faith before them and try to be more intentional about my conversations with them.  These girls are my One Lives. Think about whose those people are in your life and pray for them and pray for how God wants to use you in their life.

Tiffany Becerra

Central Students – South West

About a month ago I was having a conversation with my mom and I jokingly said “I have no life.”  I think this is a statement most moms have had (or thought) and what I meant by the statement was “I have no social life”.   You see I have three adorable little boys and my youngest is only three months.  I was quickly reminded by his birth of how demanding and exhausting life can be with a baby.  Those extra “social” outings seem to come around less often simply because I don’t have much spare time lying around.
Only a couple of weeks after this statement I was blessed by a trial that brought me back to reality of how much I LOVE my life.  Although this trial didn’t transform me into the perfect mother or #1 mom or even mom of the year (and I will never claim to be) it did remind me to appreciate those exhausting moments.  Moms, you know the moments that I’m talking about; when you’ve lost count of the number of diapers you’ve changed that day, when you’re child wants to be snug as a bug…again, when they wake in the middle of the night and only mommy can fix it.  Yes…those moments.
God has blessed me with the opportunity to be a mommy and although I may be in a season where the focus is less on my social calendar and more on my boys I am embracing this season for all it’s worth. 

Andrea Kessler

Preschool Ministry

As many of you know, our Junior High and High School ministries are in the middle of a love, sex, and relationships series, so I thought it only appropriate to address the issue of sex. 

Sex, for some parents, is a very touchy and taboo subject.  It can be awkward for parents as well as their students.  Some are afraid to talk to their kids about sex because of personal inadequacies or mistakes in their past or in their student’s past, because they are a single parent, or because they just have no idea how to talk to a 16-year-old boy about sex.  I really want to encourage you to be intentional, purposeful, and wise when dealing with your student’s sexuality. They really do develop their view on sexuality at a young age and you being a part of that will have a huge positive influence.  Part of that is getting them to the Sex weekend here at Central on 2/14-2/15 and the Q&A weekend on 2/21-2/22 and even connecting with your students small group leader to advise them and lead into their lives as well.  No matter the obstacles in your way or even the obstacles in your past, I want to encourage you to be a part of your student’s sexuality, and be intentional about talking about it and asking and answering questions because you play a huge role. 

Bradley Brittain

Element 

One of the most popular story lines for “teen” movies is that the child has to escape the expectations of the parents. The parent always wants for the child what they wished they could be. The dad wants his son to be the high school quarterback. You know the story and all the angst the kids have as a result of those expectations.

A few months ago I had dinner with a family with two kids, an eight year old boy and four year old girl. They had an air hockey table and big Anaheim Mighty Ducks flag in their house and several other pieces of hockey memorabilia. I thought I was in the home of some serious hockey fans. As we talked I found out something that surprised me and gave me some good things to think about. The parents were not hockey fans. They became hockey fans because their son somehow decided he like hockey. The dad grew up playing baseball and would probably rather be tossing the ball in the backyard instead of driving to the rink for practice. The whole family ice skates now.

They decided to chase the dreams of their child instead of directing the dreams of their kids. I love this idea. It’s not about them knowing us. It’s about us choosing to get into their lives and become excited about what excites them. And it’s about us knowing their interest so well we can help them learn about life through them. Have fun chasing their dreams with them!

Daniel Carnahan

Central Kidz – Summerlin