Kin-to-Kid Connection: Appropriate Vulnerability

When we talk about human connections, it often necessarily involves vulnerability. Our most meaningful relationships are the ones in which we make ourselves vulnerable in front of others, because it means we can trust those people. But how vulnerable should we be? How do we balance sharing too little and not forming a connection with sharing too much and potentially harming our loved ones? In this talk, “Appropriate Vulnerability,” we walk you through the importance of trust, how to temper our vulnerability, and how to form the connections we need as humans.

To learn more about Kin-to-Kid Connection and our mission to get kids and their kin to form meaningful connections, visit www.kin2kid.com.

Kin-to-Kid Connection: Understanding Shame and Guilt

We’ve been motivated throughout our lives with shame and guilt but too few of us have looked into the heart of what they are — or the scars they leave on our hearts.  Sometimes, we can even get caught up in feelings without really knowing where they come from or what to do about them. In “Understanding Shame and Guilt,” we discuss guilt, shame, judgement, and blame and how these concepts tie together.

To learn more about Kin-to-Kid Connection and our mission to get kids and their kin to form meaningful connections, visit www.kin2kid.com.

Kin-to-Kid Connection: How Do You See God?

Parents of teens often don’t see how their faith or lack of faith shapes what their children see.  Nor do they recognize some of the hidden messages they picked up as children.  How you see God can shape how you and your children interact. In this talk, “How Do You See God?”, we take a look at the biblical definitions of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so you can see God for what he is.

To learn more about Kin-to-Kid Connection and our mission to get kids and their kin to form meaningful connections, visit www.kin2kid.com.

Kin-to-Kid Connection: Responsive or Responsible

This is the first of the parent training sessions we did for the teen care program.  The teens got a similar message but shaped so that they could hear it.  The teen messages weren’t recorded.  We recorded the parent messages as a part of our preparation.  The first one helps with the biggest challenge that parents face with their children.

The choices and behavior of our children can make us feel like we’re responsible, and it can be difficult to deal with feelings of shame and guilt when they don’t always act the way we want. As parents, we need to understand when to be responsible and when to be responsive. In “Responsive or Responsible,” we discuss the ways that we should be responsible for our children and the importance of being responsive to our children, even if we aren’t responsible for their behavior.

To learn more about Kin-to-Kid Connection and our mission to get kids and their kin to form meaningful connections, visit www.kin2kid.com.

Kin-to-Kid Connection: How to Not Get Sucked In

Last week, we posted the first leader training for a program working with teens.  Everything You Know Might Be Wrong was designed to shake the volunteer’s beliefs that they know the truth to open them up to their need to not get sucked into the story. In ministry, volunteer work, corporate work, and life, it’s too easy to get sucked into a cause and lose yourself. In this video, I’ll talk about compassion, altruism, and boundaries and how they fit together to keep you from getting sucked in.

To learn more about Kin-to-Kid Connection and our mission to get kids and their kin to form meaningful connections, visit www.kin2kid.com.

Kin-to-Kid Connection: Everything You Know MIGHT Be Wrong

It was last year and Terri and I were being asked about helping with a church-based program to help teens and their parents who were struggling.  It was a program that had run for a while and was dormant because it wasn’t working.  In the restart everyone wanted to provide a bit of support to the volunteers.  This is the first of two training sessions that we did with volunteers to help them realize that what the teens might tell them might not be the only truth.

We’re all convinced that we have the right answers and our perceptions are the right ones – however, what we really know is that our perceptions aren’t always right.  What do you think you know that ain’t so? (Paraphrasing Mark Twain.)

To learn more about Kin-to-Kid Connection and our mission to get kids and their kin to form meaningful connections, visit www.kin2kid.com.