Positive Teenagers are not an accident. They are the product of positive parenting and putting positive things into young minds.

Creating positive teenagers involves four major areas.

1. Role Models - Your children will grow up to be just like you.

2. Negative Thoughts Are Weapons of Mass Destruction That Destroy Lives - What children put into their mind changes who they are. What you put into their mind changes them as well.

3. Chemicals Are Weapons of Mass Destruction - What children put into their body changes who they are. Every chemical they consume changes the chemistry of their brain. Chemicals change the way they think, feel, and act.

4. Positive self-image - Children are created in the image of God, and they need to lead an image oriented lifestyle that reflects His image. The core of a positive self-image is a heart and mind full of God's love.

Role models are a blessing or curse that lasts three lifetimes.

Everyone is a role model. The only question is whether they are a good or bad one.

Good role models are a blessing that lasts three lifetimes. Their positive effect is passed on to the next two generations. Following a positive role model is your apprenticeship for life. When you stand shoulder to shoulder with them, you adopt their positive beliefs. When you rejoice with them in their victories and cry with them in their defeats, you practice life as it really is. When you get up with them after they have been knocked down, you develop championship resilience, and you transplant their empowering beliefs into your mind.

Many role models who had a positive impact on my life never knew they made a difference. They gave me inspiration and carried me through difficult times.

You never know who is watching as you live your dreams; nevertheless, you know that others are watching. They aren’t trying to catch you stubbing your toe; they are looking for inspiration and hope. They hope that you are the one who will become their role model and show them the way. You are their hero, and it’s important that you don’t let them down. Your life will have an impact on many people whom you will never know. You want that impact to be positive. Their lives will be better because you passed this way. You will make a positive difference in their life.

Bad role models are a curse that lasts three lifetimes. Abusive parents create two generations of abusive and angry descendents. Their children and grandchildren suffer the consequences of their destructive behavior.

Abuse perpetuates itself into future generations, and it's difficult to escape from your negative role models. This poems expresses how hard it is to escape the curse of bad role models.

The abusive man who isn’t there never seems to go away. He relentlessly pursues us though the next two generations.

Abusive parents create abusive children. Angry parents create angry children. Loving parents create loving children. Positive parents create positive children.

The first step in creating positive children is for you to become a positive person who will be a positive role model for your children.

Parents need to examine their own lives to see whether they are members of the Life Long Disoriented. You cannot be a positive role model and be a card carrying member of the Life Long Disoriented.

Who are the Life Long Disoriented?

The Life Long Disoriented are a diffuse group of individuals from every nation and race who share many characteristics in common.At the most basic level, they don't know who they are or where they are going. They live by default rather than by design, and they are unwilling to do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true. When things don't work out, they always have an excuse, and it's never their fault. They are unable to maintain a sustained focus for the long haul. They are talkers rather than doers. They never commit themselves to anything with all their heart, mind, and strength.

If this sounds like you, it’s time to make major changes in the way you think and live, because your children will become just like you.

Review this checklist to see how many of the following characteristics you share in common with the Life Long Disoriented.

1. They believe they can think the same old thoughts, take the same old actions, and still get a new life.

2. They don't run their own mind. Someone else runs it for them, and tells them how to think and what to do.

3. They don't know how to program their own mind. All of their programming was inherited or done by other people.

4. They are image oriented. They try to change their life by changing their image rather than by changing the way they think.

5. They don't live as if they are a great person. They don't act as if their dreams are possible and work each day to make them happen.

6. They tolerate negative thinking.

7. They haven't selected an area of excellence which they develop and give to the world.

8. They create and adopt limitations in their own mind.

9. They are outcome-oriented rather than purpose-oriented.

10. They don't control what goes into their mind.

11. They don't understand that they can change who they are by changing what they put into their mind.

12. They have never opened their heart and mind to the power of God's love. Their mind contains thoughts that are inconsistent with God's love. Their heart contains emotions that are sick and inconsistent with God's love. They don't have a personal relationship with God based on love.

13. They don't live congruently with their heart, mind, and will all heading in the same direction.

It's easy to become a member of the Life Long Disoriented. All you have to do surrender your dreams and let other people tell you what to do and how to think for the rest of your life. They will give you a small plot in Nowhere Land in which you can bury your dreams forever

Parents who are members of the Life Long Disoriented create children in their own image. They make children who will become members of the Life Long Disoriented.

The first step to raising positive teenagers is to have positive parents who know who they are and know where they are going. They run their own mind, and their hearts and minds are full of God’s love. They are unstoppable, consistently positive, endlessly persistent, doers of dreams. They are excellent role models, and their life is a blessing that is passed on to the next two generations.

NEGATIVE THOUGHTS ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

What you put into your mind transforms your life for better or worse, and makes you into a different person. What other people put in changes who you are as well. What goes into your mind changes your life forever.

What you listen to in the media changes who you are. What you watch on television goes straight into your brain and remains for the rest of your life. It makes you into a different person.

Do not walk the path of self-destruction by loading your mind with toxic waste. Each time you dwell on negative thoughts, you plant the seeds of your own destruction, because each of those thoughts will haunt you for the rest of your life.

God gave you a clean mind, and He expects you to keep it that way. He expects you to fill your mind with good things. God gave your children a clean mind, and He also expects for you to keep it that way. That is your responsibility as a parent.

What you think about matters. Negative and limiting thoughts create a chemical imbalance in your brain and make you feel bad. Positive and unlimited thoughts restore the normal chemical balance, and you feel good once again.

What you think about determines the chemistry of your brain. When you think anxious thoughts, you create the chemistry of anxiety, and you become anxious. When you think depressing thoughts, you create the chemistry of depression, and you become depressed.

You are responsible for the chemistry of your brain, and for the chemistry of your children‘s brain as well. You control what goes into your mind, and it’s your responsibility to control what goes into your children’s mind.

When you choose your thoughts, your choose your chemistry. When you change your thoughts, you change the chemistry of your brain. You are not the victim of your chemistry; You are its creator. If you don’t like your brain chemistry, you change it by changing what you put into your mind.

Do not walk the path of self-destruction by filling your mind with negative things, and do not let your children fill their mind with negative toxic waste. Put positive and healthy thoughts into their mind and create a brain chemistry that lifts them up and supports them on the journey to their dreams.

When you see a newborn baby, you see a heart and mind that doesn’t contain even one molecule of toxic waste. God gave that baby a clean mind and a pure heart. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take long to ruin this gift. When that child is only a couple of years old, television and videos start dumping the garbage in. By the time he is twenty years old, the dastardly deed will be done. His clean mind and pure heart will be history.

When I raised my children, one of my goals was to get them to eighteen years of age with a clean mind and pure heart. If it was up to me, they would enter adulthood without a mind full of toxic waste.

In our home we didn’t use bad language, and we didn’t allow the toxic waste of Hollywood to come into our living room. Now that my children have grown up, it’s up to them to keep a clean mind and pure heart. It's up to them to not pollute their heart and mind with toxic waste.

If you think that you can fill your mind with the violent and negative images found in the movies and television, and keep a clean mind and pure heart, you are making a serious mistake. You are a fool. You are swimming upstream against a raging torrent of toxic waste. You can’t put toxic waste into your mind and expect to stay clean on the inside. It’s impossible.

If you think that you can let your children put sewage into their mind without suffering negative fallout, you are not competent to be a parent. It’s your responsibility to see that your children have a clean mind and pure heart. If you don’t do it, you will fail in your responsibility as a parent. Your children would be better off if you gave them up for adoption to someone who would put good things into their mind.

If you want to raise positive teenagers, it's your responsibility to see that they have a clean mind and a pure heart. It's up to you to fill their heart and mind with good things and to not let negative weapons of mass destruction pollute their life.

No Alcohol
No Marijuana
No Methamphetamine
No Cocaine
No Chemicals

Every day at the hospital, I see the carnage created by the use of chemicals.

The most destructive chemical on planet earth is alcohol. One out of eight people who drink alcohol will become an alcoholic. Alcohol is the single most dangerous drug tolerated in our society, and is the biggest recreational drug on the planet.

Just because everyone you know drinks doesn't mean you have to. When it comes to chemicals, the only word that should ever enter your mind is the word NO.

When we raised our children, we did not consume alcohol in our house or participate in social drinking. Children are not stupid. They know that alcohol is a drug, and they know that if it's OK for you to use it, that it's OK for them to use it as well. What is good for mom and dad is good for them.

Young people do not compartmentalize their mind to differentiate one drug from the other. As far as teenagers are concerned, you either use drugs or you don't. If you use chemicals, your children will probably use them as well.

Teenagers who say yes to drugs will experiment with many different ones. I know this to be true because I see them every day at the hospital where I work.

Parents who drink alcohol and tell their teenagers to not use drugs are living in fantasyland.

If you believe that you can consume drugs and that your children won't do the same thing, you are a fool. You are their role model. You are the most significant person in their life. They look to you for guidance and advice. If you use chemicals, they will use them as well. Don't poison your children's future by using drugs. Give your children the gift of a drug free life.

God created you in his own image, and the fact that you were made in his image is sufficient reason to have excellent self-esteem.

When God finished creating man and surveyed the results, He pronounced his creation good. He didn’t say the creation was fair, or that it was more or less good with only a few exceptions. He unequivocally, absolutely, and enthusiastically declared that his creation was good. That applies to you and to everyone else living on planet earth. There are no exceptions.

You don’t need to lead an image-oriented or performance-oriented lifestyle. You only need to accept the facts of life. You are worthy because God says so. Your self-esteem comes from God, because He loves you as you are.

The core of a positive self-image is a heart and mind full of God's love.  When your mind is full of thoughts consistent with God's love, your mind is exactly the way God means for it to be.  When your heart is full of emotions consistent with God's love, your emotions are healthy, and they are exactly the way God means for them to be.

You are created in God’s Image and your life should reflect His image. When you reflect the image of God, there is no limit to how good your life can become.

POSITIVE PARENTS CREATE POSITIVE TEENAGERS

Some people will be offended by what I have written. They will say things like:

1. We should teach our children to use chemicals responsibly.

2. A little inner pollution won't harm the hearts and minds of our children. Just do it responsibly.

3. A poor role model won't do that much harm to my children. Just do the best you can and act responsibly whenever you can.

If that is your attitude, you will bear the responsibility of having teenagers who are members of the Life Long Disoriented. You will be responsible for teaching them that it's acceptable to use chemicals and to fill their mind with the toxic waste of the twenty-first century.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?

I measure my success as a parent in a simple straightforward manner.

When my children are eighteen years old, if they have a clean mind and a pure heart, then I am a success.

If my children don't use chemicals, then I am a success.

If my children have a positive self-image and a heart and mind full of love, then I am a success.

If my children are still talking to me, and I am still their best friend, then I am a success.

Positive parents create positive teenagers.