According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), law enforcement agents made over 696,000 arrests in 2019 involving offenders aged 18 and below. While the number is 57 percent lower than the arrests made in 2010, the fact that the arrests on minor offenders breached the half million-mark is still enough to cause worry, especially among parents of adolescent kids.
Among the offenses committed by youth offenders are aggravated assault, robbery, and homicide. While there is a downward trend in the number of serious violent crimes involving youth offenders from 1992 onward, adolescent crime victims far outnumber adolescent crime offenders, thereby putting both adolescent crime offenders and their victims in a precarious situation.
With these facts in mind, you might be dead worried as a parent about the safety and future of your adolescent kid. However, it’s important for you to not be easily disheartened and instead take proactive steps in ensuring that you’re raising your kids to become God-fearing and law-abiding. Follow these simple, yet effective ways to raise kids in these fashions:
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Give them a great education.
Kids who grow up studying in an institution that teaches great values aside from academics are highly likely to stick to rules and fear God. As such, giving your adolescent kids a great education by enrolling them in a reputable educational institution is an excellent way to do that. If you’re a Christian family located in the State of Arizona, a Gilbert high school education would be a great idea as schools like it offer adolescents a holistic curriculum that not only nourishes the learners’ minds but also their spiritual well-being.
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Discuss faith with them whenever you can.
While it’s true that you probably spend most of your waking hours trying to earn money to support your family’s needs, looking after their spiritual state is among your top duties as a parent. As such, be sure to spend a few hours each day or at least during your weekend family day to discuss matters of faith with your adolescent kids. Keep in mind that they are currently in a stage where negative influences lurk in every corner, so it’s critical for you to make them realize how faith can help them overpower that kind of negativity.
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Walk your talk.
As you exalt the virtues of following established societal rules and abiding by the commandments of God, you should make every conscious effort to walk your talk. As practice everything that you preach to your adolescent kids, they will surely realize how wonderful it is to have parents whom they can emulate. This sort of situation is ideal if you want your kids to have good role models, so they won’t be tempted to copy the ways of other possible influences that can only do them harm in the process.
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Read the Bible and go to Church regularly.
Aside from actions, your adolescent kids should also imbibe the words of God as frequently as possible. You can set aside a reading hour each night reading Bible verses by assigning your kids to pick one verse, read it aloud, and then discuss it as a family. Additionally, you should take them to Church with you on scheduled worship services so your adolescent kids will develop the habit of communing with God in a holy place.
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Take time to also discuss basic concepts of laws and norms of decency.
Since you’re aiming to rear adolescents who are not only God-fearing but law-abiding as well, teaching them about laws should be part of your parenting duties. This would require you to do some research so you can translate complex legal terms and concepts into a way that your kids would easily understand. If you have friends who are adept at such topics, you may seek help from them, or you may consult legal websites with laymen’s explanations of common laws.
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Make them realize that they are responsible for their actions.
It’s critical to make your adolescent kids realize, at the earliest possible time, that they are accountable for everything that they do. Thus, be sure to spend time with them to explain how a specific action could lead to a particular result for them to practice being mindful of their actions. Just letting your kids act the way they want is the last thing you should be doing as a parent, lest you want your kids to tread the path to destruction.
Being parents to adolescent kids is truly a tough job. However, with tips like the ones given, the heavy load should be lighter and easier to take.
