Free Screens and Teens by Kathy Koch Page A

you’re driving your teen somewhere. As you speak your thankfulness, it will become easier and more natural for you.
    If your teens need to wake up to how much they really have, it can jumpstart their thankfulness to get them out and aboutwith people who have significant needs. Any local food pantry would joyfully welcome teen volunteers (or family volunteers)! Many youth groups offer teens opportunities to serve the under-resourced or the homeless, especially at the holidays or in the cold winter months. Many elementary schools have mentoring or tutoring programs for their at-risk students and would be glad for teen helpers. If your teens have the chance to travel to emerging countries, that can be an eye-opener for them as well. Your teens may be aware of world and poverty issues via their screens, but seeing images doesn’t carry the immediacy of real-life interaction with people who are needier than they are. Help create opportunities for your children to find their gratitude!
LESS AND MORE! 
    We’ve explored teens’ core needs and their unique traits, and now we’ve established some basic less-and-more guidelines. We need to modify some of the practices that have crept into our lifestyle. Some things definitely need to be
less
—less screen time and noise to overwhelm, stress, and fatigue our teens. And there are some things we want to do
more
—more family connection, more books, more quiet, more play, more boredom, more gratitude.
    We can turn our attention to the specific lies that come through—overtly or covertly—to our teens through the technology in their lives. We have the privilege and responsibility to help debunk these false messages and to introduce truth to change the minds of the young people we love.

4

    F or as long as I can remember, I’ve been a bit of a clean freak about my glasses. I keep a hot-pink cloth for cleaning them in my purse. I have a white one by the chair in my den, a gray one in an office desk drawer, and a blue one in a bathroom drawer. It totally bugs me when my glasses aren’t clean. Any fingerprint smudge can make what I’m looking at appear out of focus.
    Having the right prescription is more important. The slightest improvement can make a huge difference with corrective lenses. Many times, I thought I was seeing just fine until my annual checkup. A minor adjustment felt major; I hadn’t realized how out of focus things had become.
    You’ve got an invisible pair of glasses—and so does your teen. Those are the lenses through which you look at life. If the glasses are out of focus with the wrong prescription, we won’t see thingsaccurately. Right things can look wrong, and wrong things can look right.
    These metaphorical glasses are our basic worldview. 1 Our particular prescription is made up of our beliefs and assumptions that act as our filter. We interpret what we see, hear, think, feel, and experience through our prescription. Therefore, what we believe and assume will influence everything new. What we think we “clearly” know may be a bit blurry without us realizing it. We react to everything based on the beliefs that make up our prescription.
    For example, you could enter a contest and win the newest and greatest tablet. Your worldview—your prescription—determines how you interpret your victory. If you believe in fate, you may think,
It’s my lucky day!
If you believe you’re the most important person in the universe and the world revolves around you, you may think,
I don’t know why everyone is so surprised or upset. It makes total sense I’d win because I deserve to win
. If you believe Jesus is Lord over everything, you may think,
I sure don’t deserve this good gift, but I thank You for it, Lord. Show me how to be a good steward of Your generosity
. 2
    Based on observations and study, we can say this generation’s prescription of beliefs and assumptions are