Like any major transition, the letting-go years of motherhood are an opportunity to fix our identity in Christ, live for his glory, and continue investing in the work before us.

Through the ever-changing high school years, we can model to our teens a faith that is imperfect, yet dependent on a perfect Savior.

While it can be difficult to get our kids to open up—especially as they hit the teen years—we can take practical steps now to help facilitate communication and build connection.

The teenage years give us new opportunities to welcome our kids—and all their emerging changes—with the hospitality and humility of Christ.

As we help our kids navigate an increasingly digital world, we can point them to God’s truth as their ultimate measure of reality.

The teen years are an opportunity for moms not to fall back in fear, but to press forward with hope as we preach and practice the gospel in each little moment.

Instead of clinging to our children as they grow, we can gradually deliver them from dependence on mom to dependence on Christ.

We all want an A+ grade for our reputation and our kids’ good behavior , don’t we? But the gospel says our kids aren’t projects to ace, but sinners in need of grace.

Do you remember the first time your parents or friends talked to you about sex?

I wouldn’t describe the emotions that I experienced from the conversation with my mom or with my friends as positive. And yet, in Genesis 2:25 we have a description of a very positive experience. Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed.

Can you imagine a scenario where you could be completely naked, emotionally and physically, and be unashamed? Nothing to hide. Nothing to cover. No good parts to emphasize. No bad parts to deemphasize.

This is the beauty of the sexual experience as God intends it.

We know that our kids won’t get the biblical view of sex from culture. The culture swings between sex being too important and not important at all. It is the end all of every great experience and it is so unimportant you can engage in it with anyone.

We need to give our kids a different view. We need to give our kids a grace-centered, biblical view of sex.

The question is how do we talk about sex to our children in a way that validates the goodness of sex, the way God intended, without shaming or scaring them into thinking sex is a bad thing.

How do we stand next to our child and give them more than a list of dos and don’ts?

We must show our children that a relationship with Jesus is better than any other experience. And we must make sure they know that no sin, sexual or otherwise, is beyond the grace of God. We can only give a complete biblical view of sex when we affirm that Christ loves the prostitute as much as he loves the woman who was a virgin when she got married.

Grace levels all of us.

This glorious news is worth the embarrassment that you may feel in any conversation with your kids.

So smile, and share.

No parent wants to wade through difficult issues with their kids. But sometimes the unavoidable things are God’s grace to us and our child. Sometimes they are the very things he uses to draw us more to himself.