Studies have shown that 70% of Christian raised young adults walk away from their faith shortly after graduating from high school. That means that only 30% continue their walk with Christ as young adults.
We are informing people about this problem, and challenging parents of preschool, elementary, junior high and high school students to intentionally prepare their children for the ultimate day when they graduate from high school—a time when they will be on their own, and will be responsible for their own decisions. Will they be among the 70% that walk away from God, or the 30% that stay in a relationship with Jesus Christ? What are you as parents doing right now to prepare them for that ultimate day?
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it." What does it mean to "Train up a child in the way he should go?" As a parent, what steps can you take now, when your child is young, to prepare them?
Young Adults of Worth Ministries is bringing awareness to the issue, and we are challenging parents to intentionally train their children starting at a young age, in "the way they should go." We are calling them to parent in a Biblical way, not just on Sunday mornings, but all of the time.
We hope to help you in this journey, by providing Biblical guidance on what you can do to increase the chances of your child ending up in the 30%. No one can give you a magic formula or a guarantee; however, God gives us lots of parenting principles in His word. He does let us know what it means to "Train up a child in the way he should go."
raisedUP Articles
Below are recent articles from our blog to help you parent your child toward being part of the 30% that continue to walk with Christ as young adults.
Who’s Your Hero?
Abraham, venturing into the unknown Moses, leading a stiff-necked people Ruth, forging her way through poverty David, facing Goliath Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, enduring the fiery furnace Daniel, thrown in to a den of lions These are the stories our children hear, the “heroes of faith”. But they are not the hero. Harold and the […]
Love Me?
Everyone loves to show affection to a baby, but it’s less common as the child gets older. Saying “I love you” and giving hugs is what all parents do to their baby. It seems a very easy and natural thing to do. The unconditional love is shown even when they mess up; like when they […]
Roots of Anger: Feeling Helpless or Inadequate
You are trying to do what appears to be a simple task – for example fastening two metal objects together with a nut and screw. However, each time you think they are aligned and you attempt to tighten them, the screw or nut moves or falls. After several frustrating efforts, you yell and pound your […]
A Promise Kept
Have you ever been promised something? My parents said yes to a bike for Christmas after begging for a long time, or at least that is what it seemed at my mature age of 12. The whole sales pitch was given with the correct amount of behavior adjustments, and thinking of others before myself. However, […]
The Burden of a Forgetful New Year
January is almost through. How are you doing on those New Year’s resolutions? Passing with flying colors? Failing miserably? Or somewhere in between perhaps? Me, I rarely ever make resolutions for myself. It’s just too much for me. You see, I tend to be a do-er. And a do-er with an unrelenting compulsion to complete […]
Single Parents
I recently talked to a young adult single mother. She was beautiful and so was her baby. On the surface things seemed just fine, until she started to open up. She explained how she is struggling financially to make ends meet; to pay for her apartment, college, and the associated costs of having a baby. Her […]
Roots of Anger: Feeling Wounded by Others
Beneath our overt angry expressions are deeper roots of emotional pain which feed the hostility. In the last blog, I identified four roots, including: hurt, helplessness, anxiety about losing something important, and guilt. In this blog, we will explore anger that is triggered by relational wounds. Psychological researchers have demonstrated that emotional hurt is a […]
You Are Special
As this year comes to a close, I think of the most important thing we can teach our children. It is important to constantly remind them that they are special, and are uniquely and wonderfully made. We tell our son that we love him just about every day, and most days more than once. This […]
‘Tis the Season to Fall in Love
‘Tis the season. The season to ‘put Christ back in Christmas’ or ‘make your holly Christmas holy’ or some other cliché, play on words phrase that entices you to make the holiday more ‘Christian’. We hear about how to incorporate our children in: acting out the nativity story, implementing a Jesse tree, playing hide and […]
Understanding Millennials
There are varying positive and negative opinions on Millennials, with lots of studies done, but I’m going to try to sum up my experience, thoughts and research on this generation of great potential. Millennials are individuals born between 1980 and 2000. Earlier this year, Pew Research said that they are now America’s largest generation (over […]