Parenting teens in our world today is no easy feat.

While each season of parenting has its own unique set of ups and downs, the teen years can

feel especially tricky as our children grow in new ways and start to experience the joys

and pitfalls of increasing independence and responsibility.

My guest today is John Nielsen, and in our conversation we discuss some of the most common

questions that parents of teens often ask him as a pastor. Questions like, when should I let my teen

get a phone? How do I help my daughter who's struggling with depression and anxiety?

And how do I encourage my son to embrace a biblical vision of gender and sexuality?

John serves as the senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, Illinois,

and has spent years discipling teens and their parents.

He's also the author of God's Great Story,

a daily devotional for teens from Crossway.

Let's get started.

Well, John, thank you so much for joining me again on the Crossway podcast.

Thanks. Great to be here.

So today we're going to talk about a few

common questions and issues and concerns that I think parents of teens can sometimes face as they're

raising their kids in our world today. Before we jump into some of those issues, I wonder if you could

just give us a sense for your experience working with teens. You're a parent. I think your kids are just getting into the teen years, but you do have a lot of experience working with young people.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Since you mentioned, I'll start with my own kids. I've got a seventh grader, a sixth grader, and then we have a fourth grader and a kindergartner. So as parents, we're just getting into the years of raising and discipling and parenting teens.

But I was a high school pastor for a few years. I was a youth intern for several years at Holy Trinity

Church in the city right out of college, coached high school basketball for five years during that time,

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