Smartphones aren’t just a fad like the latest TV show or social media app. One journalist believes that smartphones have, in fact, “revolutionized society.” While extreme, this statement might not be an exaggeration. Instead, we need to recognize the legitimate benefits and dangers of the smartphone and assess those within a biblical framework while teaching our “digital natives” to do the same.

This course is part of the Parenting Summit created with the use of AXIS resources. This resource is intended to be utilized to further conversation in a small group space to encourage and process together.

Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming app, competing with services like Apple Music and Pandora. Chances are, your child is using this service to listen to anything from Top 40 hits to 1970s German Disco. Maybe you’ve noticed a recurring $9.99 fee show up on your credit card (“I thought it was free!”). And as a parent, you might be wondering how Spotify works, whether it’s like other social media apps, and how to keep your children safe from inappropriate content.

This guide helps parents know more about the troubling incidence of suicide and self-harm in the lives of young people.  Like other Parent Guides in this series, this tool provides knowledge, references, and faith-based encouragement on the subject to help parents connect with their kids.

Death has been called the ultimate statistic: 10 out of every 10 people will die. And although some professions come face-to-face with this reality on a more regular basis (doctors, nurses, police officers, butchers, the military), this conversation can feel quite difficult to begin because much of American society is structured to keep the rest of us from really thinking about it. So how do we respond when death comes crashing back into our awareness? How will your teen handle news of school shootings, virus outbreaks, and opioid overdoses? This is the world that your teen is navigating, and they need your guidance. In courageously facing the reality of death, there is an invitation for you and your teen to focus on what really matters in life.

FOMO is the fear that something interesting or amazing will happen without us, causing us to miss not just the experience, but also the camaraderie that inevitably blossoms out of experiencing it with others. Unfortunately, it’s a broken way of dealing with our God-given desires to live purposeful lives and be in community. God did not intend for us to live in a constant state of fear! Reclaiming our own boundaries and helping our kids reclaim theirs is well within our grasp, but it does require diligence, wisdom, and intentionality.

For many teens, privacy = autonomy, so they can tend to fight tooth and nail for it. But what’s a biblical view of privacy? Very few people are writing about it, especially not in terms of teens’ privacy, so this Guide seeks to understand it better and help you apply it in a way that allows teens to gain true freedom as they become responsible adults.

Even if your kids are young, you have the opportunity to shape how they view singleness and marriage now. But even more importantly, you have the chance to help them love God more than they love love itself, to the point that they’re willing to follow Him wherever He leads–including even a life of singleness. Doomed to be alone? This Guide helps you & teens rethink that!

What would it be like to imagine that the Bible has the power to change how we live from the inside out? How would it change the way we read or talk about the Bible? How would it help our teens to view the Bible as relevant to their everyday lives, rather than an outdated list of arbitrary rules to follow? What if the Bible helped us start more conversations and ask more questions, rather than ending conversations and winning arguments? We’ll use Florence’s words “hear” and “host” to structure a conversation about how we can read the Bible well and teach our teens to do so, too. It sounds strange, but we want to get it inside of us, as if we are being infected by a benign virus that spreads and changes us!

We parents can no longer afford to have only one sex talk with our kids or give them a book to read when they hit puberty. By then, it’s too late. We must start the conversation about sex early,and we must continue that conversation as our children grow.

What in the world is TikTok? Why are teens and tweens obsessed with it? What should concern me about it? Should I let my kids use it? If you’ve ever had any of these questions, this Guide is for you. Get a crash course in the app and how to disciple your kids around it.

Welcome to Twitch.tv, one of the largest communities on the Internet and the most popular eSports streaming service in the world. As the Internet’s de facto home for the phenomenon of video game streaming, Twitch.tv has fulfilled the dream of millions of middle schoolers: “professional video gamer” is now a legitimate career choice. It’s up to us as parents to teach our children how to navigate this new landscape in a healthy, God-honoring way.

Pornography is a threat for everyone, no matter our age. But we must especially be aware of how our teens’ exposure to porn. This guide will answer these questions you may have:

• When will my teens encounter porn?
• How to people rationalize porn?
• What is our culture telling men and women?
• What is porn telling men and women?
• How does porn impact men and women who watch it?
• What can I do to help my teens not fall prey to porn?
• How do teens hide porn?

The romance holiday can be a lot less exciting than movies and our daydreams make it out to be. But with our guidance on romance, relationships, sex, and true love, teens don’t have to fall prey to the disappointment, pressure, or sadness.

Few topics in today’s media-saturated world can get a parent or teacher ranting like kids and video gaming. According to Pew Research Center, 72% of teens have played video games in the last year, and they only represent 28% of the video-game-playing population. The video gaming world often represents unknown territory to parents, though, and their attempts to enforce boundaries and limits on their gaming kids typically end in tension and conflict.

This guide will help you discuss the following questions:

• How do we react to violence?
• How can we respond, rather than react, to violence?
• How do we fight desensitization?
• How do we fight empathy fatigue?
• What does the Bible say about dealing with violence?
• How can we develop empathy and love for those who are suffering?
• How can we be hopeful despite the violence we see around us?

In this guide, we’ll look at grief from many angles and answer some of the most common questions about how to parent a child who is grieving. We’ll also discuss the best practices for walking with your kids through grief.

If you’ve ever wondered how teens can spend hours upon hours watching random videos on YouTube, you’re not alone! YouTube is a phenomenon that has bypassed many of us adults to win over Gen Z. As the social network they “can’t live without,” we need to know all about it so we can help them think about it biblically.

Logan Paul? PewDiePie? HolaSoyGerman? Jenna Marbles? As the preferred video platform of Gen Z, YouTube’s stars have tremendous influence on today’s teens. So who are they? How do we keep track of them? What if our kids wants to be YT stars, too? This guide will help you navigate the new age of influencers.