GODLY RELATIONSHIPS ARE GOOD RELATIONSHIPS
JOHN 10:10
THE THIEF’S PURPOSE IS TO STEAL AND KILL AND DESTROY. MY PURPOSE IS TO GIVE THEM A RICH AND SATISFYING LIFE.
In this series you’ll learn what a healthy relationship looks like and how to have one. We know that so many of you face challenges and have heaps of questions when it comes to relationships. We want to help you discover God’s perspective on relationships, how to prepare yourself for the right relationship and how to maintain the lifestyle that you’re designed to live.
WEEK ONE
THE ONE
Be the kind of person you’re looking for is looking for.
Everybody is telling you what to look for, but you really need to look at who you need to be. We spend so much time coming up with lists for the perfect person, but do we ever look at what we can take responsibility for in our lives so that we’re the perfect person for the one we one day meet.
What can you take responsibility for in your life?
WEEK TWO
IN MY FEELINGS
Don’t let anyone become your everything.
Anyone or anything less than God is always going to end up being less than God. This week we’ll look at making sure God is our priority before we even think about being in a relationship. It’s so easy to make the person you’re with your everything and when they let you down you feel like you’ve lost it all.
What can do to make sure God is your priority?
WEEK THREE
UNBREAKABLE
A breakup doesn’t have to break you.
You don’t have to be taken out when you break up. This week we’ll talk about what happens when a relationship ends. We’ll help you understand that there is a way you can break up without it breaking you. You’ll find out that it all starts with honour and deciding what you’ll be about when it comes to the way you treat other people.
Decide who you’re going to be in God.
FOR PARENTS
Dating has changed a lot over the years, especially because of technology and social media.
What it means to be “in a relationship” or “dating” varies a lot, and it’s best to ask your teens how they define it to understand where they’re coming from.
Our culture has a lot of influence over how teens view love, relationships, and sex.
Christian culture has tended to condemn dating as unbiblical, offering courtship as an alternative, but it has its own flaws. In the end, the approach taken is less important than one’s intentions and desires.
It’s important to help your kids have a healthy view of dating by reminding them that it’s not the enemy, nor is it the reward. Also reinforce the truth that romance, love, marriage, and sex are good because God created them!
Teach your kids to be honest, to treat others as they would want to be treated, to avoid friendships that feel and look like relationships, to steward their technology well, to avoid ghosting and other modern dating pitfalls, to not depend too heavily on their feelings, and above, to pray!
Have conversations with your kids. Here are some questions you can ask about dating and relationships that will guide healthy conversations:
• Are you interested in dating?
• How do you define dating?
• Do you feel pressure to date (from culture, church, friends, family, etc.)?
• Do you think of dating as something to look forward to or to dread?
• Do you think you have any hope of dating?
• What do you think is the point of dating?
• What do your friends think the point of dating is?
• How have you seen dating done in a way that hurts people?
• How have you seen dating done well?
• Do you think it’s possible to date and not be hurt?
• What does it look like when people let dating distract them from other important parts of their lives?
• How could you be open to dating without letting it take up too much of your time?
• What would you do if the person you liked asked you for nude photos?
• What does it look like to put God first while you’re dating?
• How can you have healthy accountability while you’re dating?
• Do you feel like because you’ve never dated someone, something must be wrong with you?
• Whether you’re dating or single, what can you do to remember and believe that your self-worth is based in God alone?