As the parent of a teenager, the life of your teenager gives you strategic opportunities to invest into his or her spiritual development. Just as you might develop your child's academic or athletic abilities, God also calls you to equip your student to become more like Christ as he or she develops towards adulthood. Parenting markers are key moments in your student's life that provides you with opportunities to develop meaningful spiritual life-markers in your student. Resources are provided below to help you create memorable spiritual markers.

Peer influence becomes a major factor in your teen's decision making and search for acceptance. Probably up to this point in your teen's life, you have been the most dominant influence. That is quickly changing as your teen begins listening to the voices of others. The voice of peers may begin to influence such things as clothing choices, activities to participate in, appearance, friendships, and actions. Though your teen may begin to challenge you in some areas, you as a parent can still be the dominant voice in areas such as values and spiritual growth. As your child enters his or her teenage years, we are providing you with 30 conversations that you can have with your teenager for 30 days to form a conversation pipeline with your student that you can continue to develop throughout the teenage years and into adulthood.

- Link to purchase 30 Days: Turning the Hearts of Parents & Teenagers Toward Each Other

The 13th Birthday is a great time to celebrate the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence. One of the great tasks of adolescence is discovering their identity. During the 13th birthday, you can pass along your family's identity, teach him or her about developing a biblical identity (especially in manhood or womanhood) in an amoral culture, mark new privileges and responsibilities, and simply celebrate this special time in your life. You may choose to celebrate and bless the identity of your child as simple as a meal with just your immediate family or as elaborate as a blessing ceremony or weekend.

Jr. High is a great time for you as a parent to offer a commitment time to your student on purity. This commitment time should be a time when you and your student make a lifelong commitment to purity. You may want to do something as a simple as a meal together, or spend a whole weekend together doing something that is specific to your child. During your commitment time together, discuss issues on purity in a comfortable setting and offer your student the chance to sign a True Love Waits pledge. A True Love Waits pledge is a promise to remain pure in every area of life (body, mind, emotions, and speech), and as a part of the commitment to sexual purity your child agrees to keep the True Love Waits pledge and to be held accountable by parents and fellow believers. You may also want to provide a significant token (such as a purity ring) to commemorate this event.

So, your child is now a licensed driver! While a drivers license may free you up from driving your teenager to all the many activities that he or she is involved in, it also allows your student to go to places they never could have gone and do things they never could have done. Your teen needs to know the freedom of driving comes with greater responsibility. One way to set boundaries with your child when he or she drives is through the creation of a driving contract. You can download a sample driving contract and adjust as needed.

This major social event leads many teens to make poor decisions - either deliberately or in the heat of the moment. Many teens see this as an opportunity to dress and try to act more mature than they actually are. You can help your teen set realistic expectations of the event itself, set up boundaries ahead of time so he or she can make wise decisions on the night of the event, and determine what his or her plan of action will be if caught in a comprising position.

High School Graduation is an exciting time to celebrate the successes of your student! Congratulations on raising your teenage son or daughter! You and your senior are about to shift to a new role in each other's lives. Graduation represents a shift to freedom for the student and "letting go" for you as a parent. The resources below can help you as you prepare for graduation and college.