Learning how to love and be loved is like archery lessons that teach us how to cast out fear: aim for the bulls-eye, where the love of God rests and there is peace. Hopefully we are all learning how to become better versions of ourselves, holding one accountable with a mercy and a heart full of hope and faith that the grace of God carries us forward closer to Him when we seek His face.

Children receive a lot of input about what it will take to succeed and be happy. How can we communicate the truth that will help them realize their own potential?

So by my faith I know that the purpose and power of women in marriages, families and communities, as mothers, daughters, sisters and wives, is to pray for our men so as to fully communicate the love of God expressed in Romans 8:38-39, and by faith equip their hearts and minds with abundant grace, as fathers, husbands, sons and brothers. This can only be accomplished when I ask for divine guidance in responding to the …

My faith tells me that the gift of intelligent life and free will requires me to carefully examine my thoughts, because that is where pride starts: in a lofty thought which may be subtle and reinforced by society. Being successful in the culture of man, does not begin with seeking and doing the will of God. So in this cyber-powered society, I pray for wisdom in all things, so that my path is in alignment …

Acknowledging that parents naturally want to raise their children to share their values and make good decisions, Tehran writes: “But what parents need to know is in order to stay relevant in their children's lives, they need to relinquish some of that control they so greatly crave.” So the question remains, how do parents relinquish control and still be a responsible parent?

... it is important to consider how humans are capable of making their own “hell” on earth (i.e., feelings of isolation, powerlessness and worthlessness) by believing things that are not true, acting on them (thus disturbing the peace) and focusing on things that don’t really matter. This is the danger as the cyber realm becomes a single point of reference for life. Bullies, pedophiles and sex traffickers are counting on it...

Daily offers compelling insight about the neuro development of the reward systems of the adolescent brain, the shame experiences of childhood, and the nature of addiction as an illness that can be successfully treated when we focus on the illness, which he posits is not about the drug. “Addiction is an illness resulting from affect dysregulation,” he said. “It is a pathological relationship to intoxication. So it does not matter which drug is involved.”

When my youngest (who is 25 years old today) was 12 years old, he called me into the garage. He had been sorting the recycling. That was one of his incomes in addition to a paper route and walking dogs in the neighborhood. “Oh maaaa-ther!,” he called, in a very whimsical tone. He opened the garage door from the hall in our home, to reveal all of the recycling sorted, and in the very center were all of the empty wine bottles… and there were a lot of them. It is important to note here that I am the consumer of wine in our home. I usually have a glass at dinner and while preparing dinner. He smiled and suggested, “Let’s count them, shall we?”

What do tech-savvy teens need from parents? They need parents to provide a safe place where they can talk about the real pressures and insecurities they face.

Every modern parent must consider that in their cyber realm, youth accessing and using drugs without direction of a physician may seem like such a normal thing to do – especially when responding to the amount of stress and peer pressure hyped in social media.