Effective Biblical Discipline
The Strong-Willed Adolescent
Alas, our children quickly arrive at the door of adolescence, that dynamic time of life that comes in with a pimple and goes out with a beard — or to put it another way, it comes in with a bicycle and ends with a car. It's an exciting time of life, but to be honest, I wouldn't want to stumble through it again. I doubt if you would either. We adults remember all too clearly the fears and jeers and tears of our tumultuous youth. Perhaps that is why many parents begin to tremble and quake when their children approach the adolescent years, especially if one or more of them have been the fireball of the family.
One of the curious aspects of the teen experience today, which wasn't true 30 years ago, is its largely homogenized nature around the world. For example, adults who have traveled internationally may have recognized a certain kind of graffiti spray-painted on buildings, bridges and trains wherever they go. It looks about the same in Sydney, Chicago, London, Moscow or Berlin. Somehow kids around the world know how to duplicate those scrawled block letters that mark gang territories.
Teens in far-flung places are busily imitating each other in almost every other regard too. They are determined to look alike, dress alike and "be" alike wherever they are found. Kids even have their own international language of sorts that adapts to the ever-changing jargon of the moment.
This material is excerpted from Dr. Dobson's book The New Strong-Willed Child (copyright © 1978, 2004 by James Dobson, Inc.), published by Tyndale House Publishers, and is used by permission.