Susan Alexander Yates > Quotes

“Healing begins when we humble ourselves and go to one another asking for forgiveness.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens

“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:45). You and I can claim this blessing too. Believe that God hears your prayers for your children and that he who began a good work in them—and”
― Susan Alexander Yates, 31 Days of Prayer for My Child: A Parent's Guide

“each child will be used by him to grow us up into the men and women he longs for us to become.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, 31 Days of Prayer for My Teen: A Parent's Guide

“I truly believe that God hasn’t given us the kids we have merely so that we might raise them. He’s given us the exact kids he has in the exact birth order with the exact personalities so that they might also be used as his tools in our lives to mold us into the men and women he has created us to be.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, 31 Days of Prayer for My Teen: A Parent's Guide

“Your child needs the security of knowing that he isn’t in control. That you mean what you say. That your word is good.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens

“If I had to write a formula for trust, it would be: Trust = Wisdom + Experience (demonstrated responsibility over a period of time).”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens

“Yet, even if we are the only parents who don’t let our teen do something, we still have to do what we believe is best for our child. We are not running for most popular parent.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens

“It’s easy to lose perspective when you have little kids. One of the hardest things about this season in your life is that you don’t see many results of your training. Even though you try to teach kindness, your kids still fight. Although you pray for patience, you lose yours. You sing “Jesus loves me” until you are blue in the face, yet you wonder if it’s really sinking in. This is a season of input and training, and you are not likely to see the results of this training for years. That’s hard because we really need to see tangible fruit of our labor. We live in an instant society. We expect instant results in so many other areas of our lives and then we don’t experience it in raising our kids. We need to recognize that looking for immediate results is an unrealistic expectation. We have to remember that God is patient. He is not in a hurry. He is not surprised by our mistakes. He knows and loves each one of our children even more than we do. And he has chosen the exact children in the exact birth order with the exact personalities for our family. He has given us our kids not merely so that we can raise them but also in order that they might be used by him to grow us up into the men and women he has created us to be. He will use our children in our lives. He is at work in our family even if we can’t see it right now, even when we feel like a bad parent, even when we fear we have messed up our child forever! We have to remember that there is no mess that God cannot redeem. He is not condemning us. Instead he is delighting in us! He is patiently working through us and in us. And as he does he will gently lead us.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, 31 Days of Prayer for My Child: A Parent's Guide

“But we also want our child to learn to obey his earthly parents, whose voices he hears say, “I love you,” whose arms he feels give him hugs, in order that as he grows he will be weaned from obeying us to obeying his heavenly Father, whose voice he might not audibly hear, whose arms he won’t exactly feel, yet who he has been taught loves him even more than we do. How can he learn to obey Him if he hasn’t learned to obey us?”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens

“sense “your unlovable teenager,” please give me your loving heart for my own child. Show me today specific things in him that I can love. Remind me of positive traits that he does have! Help my attitude toward him not to depend on his response.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, 31 Days of Prayer for My Teen: A Parent's Guide

“Our kids must learn that “no” means “no” and not “maybe, if you throw a temper tantrum, whine, or threaten to run away.” It will be difficult if they did not learn this when they were young. If they have been subtly calling the shots and manipulating their parents, change will be hard and will take longer. But it is never too late to do what is right.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens

“Our children learn at a young age which parent to go to with a request. It’s vital that parents of teens present a united front.”
― Susan Alexander Yates, And Then I Had Teenagers: Encouragement for Parents of Teens and Preteens