{"id":300838,"date":"2005-02-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-28T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/connecting-to-your-daughters-heart\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T12:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:49:08","slug":"connecting-to-your-daughters-heart","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/connecting-to-your-daughters-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting to Your Daughter&#8217;s Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sharon Hersh talks about connecting with your daughter&#8217;s heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sharon Hersh talks about connecting with your daughter&#8217;s heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2005-02-28.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:","filesize":"11.41M","filesize_raw":"11964816","date_recorded":"2005-02-28 12:00:00","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2836],"tags":[4811,4087],"podcast_series":[7359],"cwp_profile":[8940],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-300838","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raising-girls","tag-daughters","tag-mothers","podcast_series-mom-i-hate-my-life","cwp_profile-sharon-hersh","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/300838\/connecting-to-your-daughters-heart","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/300838\/connecting-to-your-daughters-heart","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"0u3SY30PQX\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/connecting-to-your-daughters-heart\/\">Connecting to Your Daughter&#8217;s Heart<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/connecting-to-your-daughters-heart\/embed\/#?secret=0u3SY30PQX\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Connecting to Your Daughter&#8217;s Heart&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"0u3SY30PQX\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>\n"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg",508,508,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kfairris@familylife.com","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/kfairrisfamilylife-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Sharon Hersh talks about connecting with your daughter's heart.","meta_box":{"show_notes":"","transcript_url":"https:\/\/transcript.familylifetoday.com\/fl2005-02-28.pdf","transcript_content":"<p>\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0Adolescence has always been a challenging time for teenagers and their parents.\u00a0 According to Sharon Hersh, the challenge is getting more significant each year.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0It is a crazy, crazy world out there that our kids are growing up in, and when you merge this crazy external world with an internal world in a growing girl that is crazy as well, it is no wonder that the number of teenage girls seeking help for psychological problems in 2003 increased six times from the prior year.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, February 28th.\u00a0 Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 There are things moms can do to help teenage daughters navigate the turbulent years of adolescence.<\/p>\n<p>And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us.\u00a0 You know, it's tough, it's tough to be a teenager today, do you think?<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0I don't know.\u00a0 I haven't been a teenager in a long, long time.\u00a0 As a parent, I know.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0Well, just look around.\u00a0 Look at the challenges that are facing teenagers today.\u00a0 We had our issues when we were growing up, but it's not like today.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0No.\u00a0 We had a handful of issues that we dealt with but today kids are faced with some bizarre choices, and they are increasing, it seems, almost daily.\u00a0 And if there has ever been a time for parents to stay connected with their children, especially moms with their daughters, it's today.\u00a0 We have someone here on FamilyLife Today who is going to help moms stay connected to their daughters, and if you're a dad listening it, don't turn this off, because, I'm going to tell you something, I think dads serve a unique role with their wives and with the mother of your teenage daughter that is a very, very important role.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Hersh joins us on FamilyLife Today, and she's been with us in the past, and I want to welcome you back to the broadcast, Sharon.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0It is my privilege to be back with you guys.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Well, it's fun.\u00a0 Sharon is a licensed professional counselor on the Front Range of the Rockies near Denver, Colorado, where she is raising her two teenagers, and she's written a book called, \"Mom, I Hate My Life.\"\u00a0 That title actually came, Sharon, from a little interaction you had with your daughter when she was in the 5th grade.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Yes, it did.\u00a0 It actually has come from hundreds of interactions with my daughter, and, as I talk about this book, moms just nod their heads in agreement.\u00a0 They have heard this as well.\u00a0 One incident that I remember, when Kristin was in the 5th grade, she came home from school, and she had that affect about her that I knew it had been a bad day, and as I tried to follow her around, as I did in those early days of pre-adolescence, kind of like a yipping puppy saying, \"What's wrong?\u00a0 Tell me what happened?\u00a0 What are you feeling?\"\u00a0 And she said to me, \"Mom, I just need some time by myself.\"\u00a0 And I was thinking that maybe this was just going to be a sane, rational interaction, and so I said, \"Well, remember, you have homework tonight.\"\u00a0 \"I know, Mom.\"<\/p>\n<p>I did not pick up on the clues or the warning signs.\u00a0 You think sometimes a trained counselor might be better at this than I was, but when it comes to our own children, all of that classroom education sometimes goes out the window.\u00a0 And so I pursued her \u2013 \"Kristin, I don't want you to wait until the last minute to do your homework.\u00a0 Now, remember, you have this test coming up, and you have that essay that you need to write\" \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Kind of giving her some time-management principles?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Exactly.\u00a0 And she snapped at me, and she began to say, \"Mom, you don't understand what kind of a day I had.\u00a0 Eric made fun of my shoes.\u00a0 He said they look like my grandmother's, and everyone laughed, and I hate boys.\u00a0 And Lindy is \u2013 I don't think she really wants to be my friend anymore and, oh, Mom, I hate my life.\"<\/p>\n<p>And I knew right then that those time-management principles were probably not what she needed.\u00a0 But as I heard the angst that she was feeling, I didn't know what she needed.\u00a0 I think sometimes, as parents, when we hear those words, \"Mom, I hate my life,\" everything rises up within us \u2013 \"What do I say?\u00a0 What do I do?\u00a0 I think we try to have a nice home for you, a nice life, and you hate your life?\"\u00a0 And then, when our teenagers go a step further, and say, \"And I hate you.\u00a0 Just leave me alone.\"\u00a0 We become trapped in the emotional quicksand of their swirling hormones and the complexities of their life.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0Are we so far removed, Sharon, from our own angst.\u00a0 I mean, I'm sure there were days you came home from school when you were a teenager and said, \"I don't want to have anything to do with my parents, and I hate my life.\"<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Oh, absolutely.\u00a0 I don't think, though, that we expressed it quite as much as kids do today.\u00a0 I think kids are more expressive.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Do you think that, really?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Certainly, it's been my experience that teenagers say things today that if we would have said 30 years ago or however many years ago, we would have said it once.\u00a0 There's something good and bad in their freedom of emotional expression.\u00a0 I think the good in that is it really does give us an opportunity to understand what's going on in their world and to find handholds to connect with them.\u00a0 The bad in it is sometimes when we are barraged by their anxiety and their angst and their disappointments and their frustrations in life.\u00a0 We kind of tend to tune them out and do not necessarily pay the attention that these kinds of statements really command.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0I put my arm around a parent of a teen the other day, and I said, \"You know, I've been watching you interact with your teenager, and I've seen the withdrawal and at the points where that child is interacting,\" the scowling face, the contempt, not wanting a relationship with the parent, and I said, I just want to encourage you to do something \u2013 whatever you do, do not stop believing and loving on your child.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Good advice.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Because they're going through a period of life, and they're facing all these challenges \u2013 hormonal, as you said.\u00a0 They've got these upheavals that are occurring internal and external from the culture, and if they don't have a parent who comes alongside them and said, \"You know what?\u00a0 You may not believe in yourself, you may not like me, and you may not even like yourself, but you know what?\u00a0 I'm going to like you.\u00a0 I'm going to believe in you, and I'm going to keep on loving you and being your cheerleader.\"\u00a0 That is an important statement to make to any teen today, especially with what they're facing, do you think?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Dennis, if so many parents could hear that advice, it would really begin to open some doors of communication that maybe have been shut off.\u00a0 I often ask mothers who come in, and their daughters are acting out or sullen or withdrawn or in their room listening to music and not wanting to talk with their family \u2013 how they feel about their daughters right now.\u00a0 And sometimes an honest mother will answer, \"Well, I'm angry at her.\u00a0 I'm disgusted with the way that she's behaving.\"<\/p>\n<p>And then I will ask these moms, \"Well, how do you interact with people who are angry and disgusted at you?\"\u00a0 That tends to shut down communication and break connection.\u00a0 And so another exercise that I encourage moms who are feeling a little put out with their moody teenage daughters to do is to go sometimes and stand in the hallways of your daughter's high school or middle school.\u00a0 Stand there during the breaking period between classes and listen to the insults that are hurled.\u00a0 Watch the sexual harassment firsthand as boys walk behind girls and snap their bra straps and make derogatory comments about their appearance, and you will see that your daughters spend most of their days in a cold, cruel world.\u00a0 And if they come home, and it is tense at home, and there is not the freedom of emotional expression and the people who are in their lives at home feel disgusted and aggravated with them, they don't have much hope of developing emotional maturity.<\/p>\n<p>So we moms need to do our own work of not taking our daughter's emotional life personally \u2013 kind of grow ourselves up, so that we can be a haven for them because they certainly need a haven.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0You make the statement in the book that you think teenage girls today are the most victimized members of society.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0And, actually, statistics support that, Bob \u2013 that girls between the ages of 12 and 19 are the most victimized segment of the population today.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0What do you mean by that?\u00a0 How are they victimized?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0There are more crimes committed against them, certainly more sexual abuse, sexual crimes; the Internet has opened a whole new world of danger and threats to our young and growing girls.\u00a0 And this is also the segment of the population that is experiencing a scary increase \u2013 problems like eating disorders, and we talk about that some in the book; drug and alcohol abuse, although some drug and alcohol usage is going down among males \u2013 adolescent males \u2013 it is going up among females.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Why do you think that's the case?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0I think there are a couple of reasons for that.\u00a0 I think, first of all, we are seeing the byproducts of the girl power movement that wanted to encourage girls to take hold and use and have every opportunity available to them, and that has been good.\u00a0 But in that, also, has been encouragement to girls to act in ways that girls maybe 10, 15 years ago would not have chosen.\u00a0 I think these two sets of statistics are correlated, though.\u00a0 Because girls have experienced some of the emotional, physical, sexual abuse, they are seeking ways to medicate it and to deal with it, and that is why I can say one in every four girls has an eating disorder in our high schools today.\u00a0 But the statistics also suggest that, by the time these girls graduate from high school and go into college, one out of every four of those girls already has a problem with substance abuse.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0We used to just have the problem of confusion about sexual morality.\u00a0 Today we have problems with sexual identity.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0It is a crazy, crazy world out there that our kids are growing up in, and when you merge this crazy external world with an internal world in a growing girl that is crazy as well, it is no wonder that the number of teenage girls seeking help for psychological problems in 2003 increased six times from the prior year.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0In the midst of this, God has given a teenage girl a mom and a dad and a unique role to a mom to be able to enter that young lady's life, and you actually refer to this role of being a parent and being a mom as what you call \"hand-in-hand\" parenting.\u00a0 Would you explain that to our listeners?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Yes, and let me begin by suggesting to moms out there whose hearts are beating wildly, and they're wondering what they were thinking even letting their daughters go to school, to do an exercise that I suggest in the book, and that is to find a picture of your daughter.\u00a0 It can be a recent picture, it can be a picture when she was a baby, and look at that picture and realize that God entrusted her to you.\u00a0 And because He knew something about her and you, that in unconditional love and in His unsurpassed wisdom, He knew that you were the mother for your daughter.<\/p>\n<p>So hand-in-hand mothering is, first of all, taking that foundational truth that God has created within us moms an instinct, a longing, a knowing for our children that should make a difference, and I believe it can if we really are informed and armed and set free to parent out of our God-designed mother's hearts.\u00a0 Hand-in-hand mothering is taking that love and longing and being willing to try as many different things as we can along the way to connect with our daughters; to take her hand and say, \"I'm in this with you.\u00a0 I am going to support you,\" as you said, Dennis, \"Be your cheerleader, love you, guide you through all of the emotional ups and downs that you surely will encounter in the days ahead.\"\u00a0 And the hand-in-hand mother, in fact, comes to believe that it is those struggles, those slammed doors, those temptations, those awful conflicts, that can, indeed, become the most powerful means of us connecting with our daughters and leading them to emotional maturity.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0You know what you're asking moms to do here?\u00a0 Hand-in-hand mothering sounds like a storybook, but you're asking a mom to engage with a daughter who says I want virtually no engagement with you during this time \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0\u2026 sometimes \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0\u2026 and you're asking a mom to engage her heart with a daughter who is making herself, by her behavior, as unlovable as she can.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Man, you said t.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Absolutely.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0I've seen that.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0So a mom is looking at this and going, \"You want me to rush into the flames when nobody wants me there.\"<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0Yes, that is what I am suggesting, because God created us to be able to do that.\u00a0 He gave us that love and longing in our hearts that, yes, sometimes it is surpassed by fear or anger or frustration, and that is why I am so grateful that we have a model for this that we must never get away from in our parenting.\u00a0 Because there are times when I have not wanted God, and when I have not listened or heeded His advice; when I have not wanted anything to do with Him, and He comes rushing in to love me, to lead me, to support me through all of the storms of life, no matter where I am at that moment.\u00a0 But I do hope the book, \"Mom, I Hate My Life,\" does give some practical ideas for moms.\u00a0 Sometimes we do get a little bit stagnant and thinking, \"What can I try now?\u00a0 I've tried that, I've read this book, that didn't work,\" and teenagers are experts at inducing a sense of incompetence with us, as parents.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Or completely pushing you out and just hoping they've won the battle.\u00a0 You had that occur when your daughter, first of all told you she was going to a movie, then called to tell you there wasn't anything good at the movie, and went over to Dory's house.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0It's one of my favorite stories.\u00a0 This was during her sophomore year of high school.\u00a0 She still is not driving, and I had dropped her off at the movies, and actually then went to another movie with my son, and got these text messages and voice mails during the movie saying, \"There's nothing good on.\u00a0 Everything is sold out.\u00a0 I'm going to Dory's house,\" and I had the presence of mind, as I was trying to watch my own movie and listen to my daughter's excuses to ask, \"Well, who is Dory?\"\u00a0 And Kristin explained, \"Oh, she's a girl in my biology class.\u00a0 It will be great, Mom,\" and I did say to her, \"Well, call me from Dory's house so that I see her number on the caller ID.\"<\/p>\n<p>Well, you can imagine, I did not enjoy the rest of the movie.\u00a0 All I thought about was, \"Now, where did she go and why did I just let that happen so easily and why didn't I ask more questions, and I can't wait until this movie is over with,\" and what I was aware of is, first of all, I can be kind of a wimp in parenting; that I didn't want to start a conflict or create a big problem while I was in the middle of something with my son, and I can be pretty good at closing my eyes sometimes to things that are right in front of me.\u00a0 I think all moms can sometimes relate to that \u2013 that we don't want another conflict with our moody daughters who stomp their feet and tell us that we are ruining their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0Been there, so just capitulate, because it will be a lot easier that night if you do, right?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0But then that sense of knowing that God has planted in our hearts, grabbed ahold of me.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0You're talking about a woman's intuition at this point?<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0Or the Spirit whispering to you \u2013 one of the two, right?<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Right, right.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0And sometimes both, because we're a little bit sometimes slow to hear.\u00a0 I got home, and I did see the number on the caller ID, called it, and no one answered.\u00a0 So I'm pretty computer illiterate, but I did know a few things, and I plugged the telephone number into one of those programs that then shows the address that it's connected with.\u00a0 I'm very directionally dysfunctional, but I plugged the direction into MapQuest and found directions to this girl's home and drove over there to get my daughter.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0You didn't go over there, really?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0I did.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0Without asking your daughter if you could come?<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0No, I just knew I needed to be there, and I rang the doorbell, had to ring it twice, I heard a lot of noise in the background, and a boy who looked older than a sophomore in high school, there was a little bit of stubble on his face, and he actually was holding a can of beer when he came to the door, and he looked out the little side window, and I heard him yell, \"Oh, no, it's somebody's mother.\"\u00a0 And I rang the doorbell again.\u00a0 Someone else answered the door, and I said, \"Would you please tell Kristin Hersh that her mother is here for her.\"<\/p>\n<p>Well, my daughter came to the door with this kind of ashen look on her face, and as we walked down the front steps to our car, she said, \"Mom, how did you know?\"\u00a0 I said, \"How did I know what?\"\u00a0 And she said, \"How did you know I needed you?\"\u00a0 I tried to act a lot calmer than I was really feeling on the inside, and I said, \"Well, you know, God really told me I needed to come get you,\" and, as we got in the car, she told me about this night that had really gotten out of control.\u00a0 She'd got to a house where there were no parents home, there was alcohol, there were boys from another school threatening to fight the boys from her school.\u00a0 I think it was a lesson to both of us that I could count on God to lead me if I was not so afraid of the circumstances or the potential conflict, and I think it showed my daughter that she could count on me to be there.<\/p>\n<p>I wish I could say that I have always known every time she was in trouble and showed up at the front door.\u00a0 That has not happened, but it was an important night for the two of us, for both of us to know that although the culture and the pressures out there are intense, that I was stronger than the culture.\u00a0 I didn't feel stronger.\u00a0 And, by myself, I'm not.\u00a0 But with God's help, that is a message that we need to send to our children \u2013 that we are stronger than they are.\u00a0 It's a terrifying thing for a teenager to believe that they are the strongest one in their family, and that their emotions rule the roost and that they can get away and do anything they want as long as they throw a fit or they couch their words in exactly the right manipulative way.\u00a0 That's a scary thing.\u00a0 A teenager may think that's what they want, but to feel like they are the strongest person in their world leaves them feeling very alone and afraid.<\/p>\n<p>And so I hope that as moms get in touch with their own intuition and maybe work through some of these scenarios with their daughter, they can give their daughter a message \u2013 \"Sweetheart, my love and my longing for you is stronger than the pull that you are going to feel and the emotions that are going to swirl around inside of you as you grow up in this culture.\"<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0And the responsibility of both moms and dads \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Sharon:\u00a0\u2026 absolutely \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Dennis:\u00a0\u2026 is to fulfill their role regardless of how the teenager responds to them.\u00a0 If they push them out, you keep coming.\u00a0 If they don't want your love, you keep loving, but you don't capitulate to the culture, you don't back out at a time when they need you in their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Bob, I think today is the most challenging time that families have ever had in terms of raising children, and it's because of what Sharon talked about in her book and earlier in the broadcast, how young ladies are being victimized by the culture in ways that are unspeakable and unheard of.\u00a0 We, as parents, must fulfill our role and be godly parents as never before.<\/p>\n<p>Bob:\u00a0Well, and a mom needs some allies and some support and someone who can come alongside her and help her know what her assignment is during the difficult times when she's trying to be a mom to a teenage girl and, Sharon, you're that ally in this book, \"Mom, I Hate My Life.\"\u00a0 We've got in our FamilyLife Resource Center, and we'd like to get it in the hands of many of the moms who are listening to us today.\u00a0 You can go to our website at FamilyLife.com.\u00a0 At the bottom of the screen you'll see a little button that says, \"Go.\"\u00a0 You click that button, it will take you right to the page where you can get more information on Sharon's book and other resources that are available, including the book you and Barbara wrote called \"Parenting Today's Adolescent,\" that deals with many of the issues that teenagers are facing.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, any of our listeners who would like to get both books, we'll include at no additional cost either the CD or the cassette of our conversation this well with Sharon Hersh.\u00a0 Again, go to our website, FamilyLife.com, click the \"Go\" button at the bottom of the screen, and you can order online, if you'd like, or call 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY, and someone on the team can help you with information about how to receive any of these resources.<\/p>\n<p>If you do stop by our website, we have updated our FamilyLife Resource Center.\u00a0 There is a lot of information about parenting resources that are available from us here at FamilyLife.\u00a0 Again, our Web address is FamilyLife.com, and if you're calling, it's 1-800-FLTODAY.<\/p>\n<p>Last week we had an opportunity, Dennis, to begin working our way through a document that we created here at FamilyLife called The Family Manifesto, and we shared a little bit with our listeners about the history of that document and how they can find a copy of it online.\u00a0 We also mentioned that it's in your book, \"One Home at a Time,\" and we invited folks, during the month of February, to make a donation of any amount to FamilyLife, and we would send a copy of that book, including The Family Manifesto, to any listener who requested it.\u00a0 We had a number of calls last week from folks who called in to express their support for FamilyLife Today with a donation.\u00a0 We were thrilled with that, and we wanted to remind folks that today is your last opportunity to request a copy of the book, \"One Home at a Time\" as our way of saying thank you for your financial support of our broadcast ministry.<\/p>\n<p>You can donate online.\u00a0 If you do, and if you'd like a copy of the book, in the keycode box that you'll see on your donation screen, just type in the word \"Home,\" and we'll send you a copy of Dennis's book, \"One Home at a Time.\"\u00a0 Or if you're calling 1-800-FLTODAY to make a donation over the phone, just mention that you'd like the book, \"One Home at a Time\" sent to you.\u00a0 It's our way of saying thanks for your financial support of this ministry.\u00a0 We're listener-supported, and we depend on your contributions to continue the work of FamilyLife Today.\u00a0 So thanks for whatever you are able to do in helping with the financial support of this ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow, Sharon Hersh is going to be back with us.\u00a0 We're going to continue to look at some of the challenging issues that are facing adolescent girls in our culture today, and we'll see what moms can do to help those teenage girls navigate those challenges.\u00a0 I hope you can be back with us for that.<\/p>\n<p>I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 We'll see you next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.<\/p>\n<p>FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.<\/p>\n<p>_______________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you.\u00a0 However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would\u00a0\u00a0 you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/site\/c.dnJHKLNnFoG\/b.3782043\/k.384D\/Support_Us.htm\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 FamilyLife.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><a 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