My Epic Journey

We are a family of sleep-walkers.  I won’t always remember it but my wife says I will talk and sit-up in my sleep.  She will talk and has been known to pet invisible dogs in her sleep.  But our middle child is probably the worst.  Noah will carry on a conversation and will also walk aimlessly around the house–all while being dead asleep.  Speaking of aimlessly–we have caught him a couple of times using the restroom while asleep.  The problem is he doesn’t aim for the toilet but the trash can!!!!  Makes for fun clean-up.  We usually have a lot of fun with him.

But sleepwalking can be dangerous.  Here are signs of sleepwalking:

• eyes open during sleep
• may have blank facial expression
• may sit up and appear awake during sleep
• walking during sleep
• other detailed activity during sleep, any sort
• no recall of the event upon awaking
• confusion, disorientation on awakening
• sleep talking is incomprehensible and non-purposeful

Spiritually speaking, there are also sleepwalkers.  People who walk through life as if they are spiritually alive and yet are still spiritually asleep.

Here are the signs to look for to see if you are a SPIRITUAL sleepwalker:

• you HEAR the Word but don’t DO what is says. (James 1.22-24)
• you sit in church service yet never look engaged to what is going on.
• you come to worship service hoping to be fed because you haven’t fed yourself any time during the week.
• you don’t recall any spiritually impacting moment in your life.
• when it comes to spiritual things, you are confused and disoriented.
• your spiritual life is incomprehensible and non-purposeful.
• your spiritual talk is incoherent and doesn’t match your lifestyle

As you read down this list does any of them point to you?  If so, you need to take a spiritual inventory of your life and ask the question, “Am I a spiritual sleepwalker?”

A recent post by our Pastor of Discipleship, Tom Houser, and recent conversations with students, got me thinking about SOUND BARRIERS in our culture today.  Instead of the NOISE of VERBAL communication there is the NOISE (or lack of) because students today have traded in their vocal cords for there cell phone keypad.

Walk into the EPIC Room (the student ministry room at Grace Point Community Church, Lewis Center, OH) on a Sunday morning at 11:00 am and instead of seeing 40-50 Middle School students screaming and being loud, you will see students sitting quietly next to each other engrossed in texting their friends.  What amazes me most is when students, who are sitting RIGHT NEXT to each other are texting each other.  I recently asked two girls why they were texting and not talking to each other while sitting on the same couch elbow to elbow.  Their response:  it was easier to text!!!

Our society is developing a non-verbal communication which we have seen for the past few years but it is only getting worse.

Here are ways we can began changing this in the lives of our teenagers:

1.  Schedule regular MEDIA time outs.  It can be for only an hour or an entire evening.  I even knew a family that would go MEDIA-FREE for one whole Saturday a month.

2.  Sit down and have family game nights.  Use some of the classics like Sorry or MY favorite, Candy Land.  Better yet, play games that focus on being verbal (Scattergories, Taboo, etc.).

3.  Take time, either at dinner or in the car running your student to an event, to ask your teen questions.  Alternate from SILLY questions (what is your favorite TV character and why?) to some pretty DEEP questions (If you could change one thing about you what would it be?).  A great resource to help with this is Table Topics Cubes.

What ever you can do to get your student to drop the cell phone and actually speak is worth writing down and redoing over again.

We as families fight.  Some hot (yelling and screaming) and some cold (silent-treatment).  Instead of fighting against each other we must learn to fight FOR one another.

Below is a link to a recording I made specifically for you as a parent to encourage and help you as you journey through parenting your teen(s).

Fight Club