Introduce yourself and relevant information to build credibility such as names and ages of kids, your employment, and experience.

I represent the National Center for Biblical Parenting. We are committed to helping parents with practical strategies to touch the hearts of their kids. 

I’ve brought lots of resources with me that we’ll talk about later. One I want you to know about right away though is free email parenting tips. You’ll be able to sign up for those tips here on your evaluation form or you can visit our web site at www.biblicalparenting.org.

Let me find out a little about you. How many of you have children 0-2? Preschool 3-5? Early elementary 6-8? Preadolescent 9-12? Teenagers? How many of you are planning to have teenagers? Do any of you have adult children? Grandparents here? Any of you not have children yet, just scoping out the situation to see if it is reasonable?

How many of you get angry with your kids? I just wanted to see if you are honest.

Let me give you an outline of what we’re going to do in this first session. I’m going to present some information to you in the next 35-40 minutes or so and then we’re going to work in some smaller groups to interact about this material.

Anger is a common problem in family life. I’d like to start right there. Anger is a God-given emotion in fact it’s been said that “Anger is good for identifying problems but not good for solving them.” You see, when you solve problems with anger, relationships get damaged and distance develops. So I want to give you some other strategies for solving parenting problems while you’re here at this seminar.

But anger is good for identifying problems. Anger says, “Something’s wrong here. You need to do something about it.” Now sometimes the “something wrong” is in our own hearts. We may have unrealistic expectations or a demandingness in our own hearts. But many times the something that’s wrong is that our kids are doing the wrong thing. 

If you simply learn how to count to 10 or become more patient that’s not going to solve the problem if your kids are doing the wrong thing. Since anger points to the wrong things, take a moment and pull out a blank piece of paper and jot down a few things that come to your mind that make you angry about working with your kids. “What kinds of things make you angry about working with your children?”

After a minute ask parents for their answers. Then, “Look at your list for a moment. How many of you put something on your paper that has something to do with “My kids don’t listen.” “They don’t follow instructions.” “I have to tell them over and over again.” “They do a job part way.” Or something in that category.

That is where we are going to start. I’m going to give you some practical suggestions to increase cooperation in your family. This is a lesson we all need. But let me warn you that sometimes parents have to change first before their kids change the way they live.

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SUGGESTED INTRODUCTION

Welcome and Introduction

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SUGGESTED INTRODUCTION