Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach - Why I Didnt Rebel: A Twenty-Two-Year-Old Explains Why She Stayed on the Straight and Narrow—-and How Your Kids Can Too

CONTENTS

PRAISE FOR WHY I DIDNT REBEL

Why I Didnt Rebel is one of those treasures: a delightful and informative read. You laugh while you learn. Rebecca presents helpful principles without chaining us to rules and she offers many fine, real-life examples of how these principles have proven true. Well-researched, well thought-out, and well-written, Why I Didnt Rebel is a great book to give to young parents and for small groups to study together.

Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Marriage and Sacred Parenting

Its often said that we learn by experience. The truth is that we learn by experience only when we have reflected on it and done the work of articulating it. And that is at the heart of Why I Didnt Rebel. Drawing on her own life and dozens of her peers, Rebecca offers insights of great value for parents, most especially for parents preparing for the teen years. Read this book. Do your own reflecting on it. You will indeed learn. And both you and your children will be much the better for it!

Neil and Sharon Josephson, codirectors of Family Life Canada

As a mother of four young children, I was immediately drawn to Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbachs Why I Didnt Rebel. Like Rebecca, I never walked through a period of rebellionand neither did my siblings. But Ive never been able to put my finger on what it was that my parents did that others couldnt mimic. Rebeccas book helped me do just that. Why I Didnt Rebel is a must-read for every Christian parent.

Erin Odom, author of More Than Just Making It and creator of thehumbledhomemaker.com

If you, like me, ever feel disconnected from your childs generation or wonder if your parenting is really making a lasting difference, read Rebecca Lindenbachs book Why I Didnt Rebel. With humor and candid transparency, she and other young adults reveal what their parents did right and what mattered most. Its like secretly reading your childs social media posts. But this time, you have permission, so dont miss out!

Ron L. Deal, speaker, therapist, and author of The Smart Stepfamily and The Smart Stepmom

2017 by Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach

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Epub Edition September 2017 ISBN 9780718090173

ISBN 978-0-7180-9017-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-0-7180-9000-5

Names: Lindenbach, Rebecca Gregoire, 1995-author.

Title: Why I didnt rebel : a twenty-two-year-old explains why she stayed on the straight and narrow--and how your kids can too / Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach.

Description: Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017006564 | ISBN 9780718090005

Subjects: LCSH: Parenting--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Child rearing--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Children--Religious life. | Obedience. | Obedience--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV4529 .L553 2017 | DDC 248.8/45--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006564

Printed in the United States of America

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To Mom and Dad:

Thank you for being the kind of
parents I hope to become someday.

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I never intended to write a book. Even though I finished twelve journals between the ages of ten and fourteen, I never saw myself actually writing for a real audience.

My first blog was called Becca the Great. I was ten at the time and a little overconfident, but I now find it ironic considering that a decade later I am writing a book about how my parents did a good job raising me. (I swear Im not a narcissist.) My mother is an author and speaker, so Ive always been a part of the writing world, though I never particularly wanted to join it myself. Im a psychology student, though, so I sometimes wonder if my dismissal of writing as a career is more about my trying to avoid becoming a carbon copy of my mom than an actual lack of desire.

Either way, I have obviously failed in my original plan, because here I amthe author of a book.

One day a couple of years ago, my mom was frustrated with her blog readers and decided to make it my problem. She called me and complained that whenever she wrote about parenting, there would follow a running thread of comments that all said, Teenagers just go off the rails. Its inevitable, and you cant blame me for my kids mistakes.

Now, while both my mother and I completely agree that the parent should not be blamed, we also dont think that all kids are guaranteed to rebel in their teenage years. My mom, however, had been trying for years without success to convince her readers there are things you can do to help keep your children from rebelling. She had been thinking about how to address the issue in a fresh way when she started wondering if people would listen more if it came from a different sourceif it came from a kid who truly didnt rebel. So she asked me to write her a blog post.

I said no.

But not long afterward I found myself sitting in a statistics class, bored out of my skull, trying not to let my prof catch me watching YouTube videos of corgis, when I decided that I should do something more useful with my time. A half hour later I e-mailed the blog post off to my mom to be published.