Thousands of teens and young adults celebrating life and summer and all the happy stuff that goes with it.

For a bunch of kids, it’ll also be the first time they’re away from home for the weekend, with so much freedom. It will be a weekend for most where they have some incredible memories made and some amazing encounters with God.

But for some, unfortunately, it will be a time when the freedom, the sun and the lack of parental control (along with the lack of clothing!) enables them to make some really dumb decisions.

And don’t go yawning, because you think that I’m being an over-the-top, hypersensitive Christian or that I have some issue with big Christian events like Parachute. I don’t. But don’t be fooled either, into thinking that your kid is safe or that you can trust them completely simply because they’re away at a Christian festival or are with the church youth group.

The reality is that kids have always been kids, even way back when it was a Mainstage in the bush of Otaki Folks — a fact that used to keep my mother-in-law awake at night while my beautiful wife was a regular festival-goer.

But what is even worse is people excusing wrong behaviour, saying, that it is just part of the process of growing up, even for our Christian kids — that young people spend their time pushing the boundaries, although for many, they’ll have no clue as to why.

Actually, it’s one issue that I’m going to take up with God — why on earth he would wire us humans to do the pushing at an age when we just don’t have the cognitive ability to accurately assess the risk and damage. If only I knew what I know now, when I was 15.

I’m glad for my mother-in-law’s prayerful diligence and in hindsight so is my wife.

I’m not talking about locking them down from the fun stuff in life, but I am suggesting that for some of us we do need to be a hang of a lot more diligent.

While your kids may feel like you’re killing the party for them, you need to make sure that you prepare them to respond to the grey areas — “We all deal with them — those places in our lives where the line between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ gets fuzzy. Or even disappears.”

Reality is that it isn’t that much different from those 20 years ago — it’s just a bit more in your face.

And don’t you dare put it off because you don’t know where to start! Jump online; find something that is in the language of your kids and then maybe Facebook them the link! I suggest that you start with an article called Gray Matters: Five Principles of Discernment. It’s written by the Eric Simmons, one of the guys from Focus on the Family’s Boundless team. They’re there to speak sense into the lives of young adults.

Then you can pack your kids off with plenty of sunblock, lots of water and tell them to have fun!