Parent Blog
Feb 5, 2010
What's Up with Teens
Youth-culture expert Walt Mueller, writing at SimplyYouthMinistry.com, offers practical tips for helping your kids cope with body-image issues.
Category: parent
Posted by: Ed
We're raising a generation of kids, both girls and boys, who have been hammered by images of culturally defined beauty and perfect body types since the day they were born. Consequently, they believe they're nothing unless they look and are shaped a certain way. Never are they told by the media that if they have nothing in this world but a relationship with God through Christ, they will have everything. As parents, we must do everything in our power to steer our kids away from pursuing unhealthy and unrealistic idols of appearance. But how?
First, we must pray for our kids. Ask God to fill them with a desire to conform to the "who we are" image of Christ rather than to the "what we look like" images thrown at them by the world.
Second, watch what appearance messages you send through your words and actions. Our comments about kids' weight, shape, etc. hit them hard. Be sure to love your kids for who they are, not for what they look like.
Third, deal with your own body-image issues. Let's face it: We've grown up in and continue to live in a world that's sent the same flood of messages our way. Have you given in? If so, that's sending messages out loud and clear to your kids.
Finally, help your kids identify media lies and stereotypes. Consciously process them together in a way that leads your kids to realize how these images stray from God's design for people created in his image.
