400-408 – Mark Gregston, and his wife Jan, run Heartlight Ministries (heartlightministries.org, 1-866-700-FAMILY), a very successful, year-round, Christian boarding school and residential program that helps teenagers to begin living more-fulfilling and less self-destructive lifestyles. Over the past 35 years, they've brought over 2,500 troubled teens from across the country to come and live with them in east Texas. The Heartlight formula is loving and relational, not forced or focused on breaking the teen's spirit – it is designed to bring light into a troubled teens heart, so they can better recognize and deal with life's struggles. They are the "go-to guys" when it comes to how to deal with a troubled teen. Their free downloadable books are entitled Ten Ways To Turn Around Your Teen.
• Mark will be out at Calvary Community in Westlake on September 24th.
Some of his great lines – "We are coddling our children in the hope that they will be able to live comfortably in a zoo, when we should be preparing them for real life in the jungle of reality. And we all know, that if you release zoo animals into the wild, they'll be the first to get eaten in the jungle."
"Falling down is just part of growing up."
"Good grades plus good behavior equals freedom" (Bill Ziegler, a middle-school principal).
• Mark Gregston (2/24/2011) The Power of Empowering Teens.
413-423 – Mark Gregston (Is it a monastery or a military school?)
428-438 – Mark Gregston ("It all begins with connecting," and "separation is normal." Begin by owning your own mistakes with them, express your vulnerabilities. Care more about their learning than your teaching. Develop a "Family Belief System.")
443-452 – Mark Gregston (How to deal with anger? "If there's abnormal behavior, something abnormal probably happened." Things happen that parents never know about, think abuse and molestation.)
458-508 – Mark Gregston (My 13 year old daughter has a boyfriend and smokes pot.)
512-523 – Mark Gregston
528-539 – Mark Gregston
544-554 – Mark Gregston (California Law?)
558-608 – Mark Gregston
612-623 – Mark Gregston
628-639 – Mark Gregston
644-654 – Mark Gregston
