heart connections.

Dr. Richard Ross is a professor of student ministry at Southwestern Seminary, where I attended grad school. I had the privilege of taking several classes with him and I enjoyed every minute of instruction under him. He is one of the most brilliant, godly men I have ever met. He is also the "founder" of the True Love Waits program that many people commit to. He came to my church today in Houston and did his Heart Connections seminar that he does with students and parents. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever watched. He spends an hour teaching parents about how to grow godly teenagers. His main thesis is that in order for true faith to get passed down from generation to generation is through a heart connection. The last verse of the Old Testament says that, "He will turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents." God intends for the home to be the primary place for discipleship to occur (not the church, contrary to popular belief). He walks the parents through this amazing conversation about the ways that connection is broken and the ways it remains intact.

After this he brings all the parents and teenagers in one room, sitting the parents and teens knee-to-knee and face-to-face. He walks them through a series of questions he prompts them to answer. For instance; He asks the parents to tell their teen what they remember about the first moment they laid eyes on them. He asks the parents to tell their teen about the worst, most fearful or sad day of their entire life. He asks the teen to tell their parent something about them they appreciate and he asks the teen to pray over their parent. He walks through many prompts like this, always expanding on why he this is important. It is amazing to watch. Some parents and teens seem perfectly at ease with this and you can tell that their relationship is strong, where as others seem to feel awkward about this type of conversation. The thing is, so many families lose connection along the way and most of the time they feel that there is no way to get it back. You watch something like what Dr. Ross does and you realize that it is so simple. All he has done is gotten parents and teens to talk-that's it. They aren't pulling out baggage or hashing out all the hurt and issues...they are just talking. It is so simple and yet by the end almost everyone has shed some tears, hearts have been connected and relationships mended. It is profound to watch. I wish that as a teenager I had gotten to experience something like this with my parents. I wish someone had set us down knee-to-knee and gotten us to talk to each other...what heartache would have been spared and regret been off-set and what a relationship might have been made.