The Envoy Group

Are you ready for your child’s teen years?

If you’ve ever lain awake at night wondering what might be around the corner of your child’s adolescence, this book is for you! After more than thirty-eight years of working with more than 2,500 years, Mark Gregston, founder of heartlight, a Christian residential counseling center, introduces Tough Guys and Drama Queens—a must-read “how-to” book for parents of pre-teens and teens with time-tested, biblical techniques to guide you through these unavoidably challenging years.

Mark helps parents realize that some natural parenting approaches are actually counter-productive and therefore totally ineffective.In place of those, he offers tried and true wisdom on the vital importance of relationship, forgiveness, and explains how conflict is actually the precursor to change.

Everyday your child is bombarded by highly sexualized culture and over-exposed to words and images that can influence them beyond your reach.your connection to them during these years is critical as is your response to tough issues such as appearance, performance, authority and respect, boundaries, and many more.

Parents of preteens and teens can move from scared to prepared with a new approach to parenting their adolescents. Parents of preteens intuitively know that no matter how good their kids are, there is turbulence ahead. Many feel lost and unprepared as they watch the damaging effects of culture collide with their child’s growing pains and raging hormones.

For over 35 years Mark Gregston has lived and worked with struggling teens and knows what it takes to reach them. He says, “A parent’s success has little to do with either the validity of their words or their intent as messengers; it’s more about how they approach their child and engage with them.”

This DVD-based study will explore what’s so different about today’s culture, why traditional parenting no longer works, and a new model for parenting teens. Foundational and practical, Tough Guys and Drama Queens DVD-Based Study answers the questions that parents are asking, helping them become the parents their children need them to be.

Parents of preteens and teens can move from scared to prepared with a new approach to parenting their adolescents. Parents of preteens intuitively know that no matter how good their kids are, there is turbulence ahead. Many feel lost and unprepared as they watch the damaging effects of culture collide with their child’s growing pains and raging hormones.

For the past 35 years Mark Gregston has lived and worked with struggling teens and knows what it takes to reach them. He says, “A parent’s success has little to do with either the validity of their words or their intent as messengers, it’s more about how they approach their child and engage with them.”

Designed for use with the DVD-based study, the handbook will explore:

• What’s so different about today’s culture
• Why traditional parenting no longer works
• A new model for parenting teens

Foundational and practical, Tough Guys and Drama Queens Facilitator’s Handbook answers the questions that parents are asking, helping them become the parents their children need them to be.

Holding a family together when it seems the world is falling apart is the challenge faced by parents of today’s teens. Their children face a level of evil in their everyday world that their parents can’t imagine, don’t understand and often misjudge.

When the cultural divide threatens to invade a family it is easy for parents to feel lost and alone, and without a plan to survive. Parents don’t know to intervene effectively when their teen spins out of control.

Fortunately, teen-expert Mark Gregston understands the affects of today’s confusing culture on teens and offers the right kind of help in his newest book, Parenting Teens in a Confusing Culture.

Mark answers 32 tough questions asked by parents of teenagers, with his usual wit and the biblical wisdom of the ages. His ongoing ministry to teens and their families spans more than thirty years and when he writes about how to address problems with teens, he knows what he’s talking about.

Parenting Teens in a Confusing Culture helps parents better understand the forces behind the issues their teens face, like:

• teenage drinking
• experimenting with drugs
• problems at school
• gender identity and same sex relationships
• social abuse
• immaturity
• rebellion
• entitlement
• teenage anger
• Internet influences
• Disobedience, disrespect, dishonesty

There is no better resource for Christian parents trying to successfully navigate today’s cultural minefields than Parenting Teens in a Confusing Culture. The compassionate wisdom found in this book makes it a must-read for every parent, grandparent, counselor or those involved with directing a teen or pre-teen’s path through this confusing world.

Mark Gregston, founder of Heartlight Ministries, offers vital help to parents of teens who exhibit destructive or unhealthy behaviors and actions. With biblical guidance, encouraging stories from his ministry, and a fresh message of hope, Mark helps parents:

• look beyond behavior to the heart of a teen
• recognize how kids stuff the void God wants to fill
• have proper expectations for themselves and the teen
• create a belief system and effective rules in the home
• set boundaries and nurture a sense of security

An ever–increasing number of families face these life storms. With expertise and compassion, Mark offers them the knowledge and understanding they need for their journey from struggling to success.

More often than not, teens who behave inappropriately are not rebelling; they’re just responding the best way they know how to life’s challenges. In What’s Happening to My Teen?, youth specialist Mark Gregston contends that all too often parents spend so much time correcting their teen that they forget the teen’s greater need for connection. If parents spent more time trying to understand rather than trying to change behavior, they would see a transformation in their teen’s attitudes and actions.

What’s Happening to My Teen? offers wise counsel that will help parents of teens succeed at one of the most difficult tasks they’ve ever encountered. As they draw from Gregston’s expertise, parents will become better equipped to:

• respond constructively to the inevitable conflict
• recognize when their teen’s behavior is rebellion and when it’s not
• avoid words and actions that provoke their teen
• create a safe environment that promotes truth and open communication

For parents concerned about their teen’s behavior, this book provides the scriptural insight and the skills they need to see their family thrive during those challenging teen years.

Mark Gregston–speaker, author, and director of one of America’s leading Christian residential treatment facilities for troubled teens–pours the wisdom of his experience with kids in crisis into a daily devotional.

Based on Gregston’s nationally syndicated daily radio feature and weekly broadcast, this invaluable resource for parents helps them maintain a biblical perspective as they face some of life’s most heart-wrenching challenges. Readers will find assurance and guidance as they wrestle with questions like these:

• Why is our son acting this way?
• What is our daughter so angry about?
• Will our family ever enjoy being all together again?
• How have we contributed to the problem, and how can we lead the way out?
• What is the proper balance between tough love and total acceptance?

These short devotions are filled with Scripture and real-life examples of young people who have successfully emerged from serious struggles.