By Maria Liu Wong

My son Joshua turned 13 last Saturday. And now, Tony and I are the parents of a New York City teenager. For his birthday, we gave Joshua a NIV Life Application Study Bible, and inscribed Joshua 1:7-9 and 1 Timothy 4:12 in the dedication. This reminder to “be strong and very courageous” connected him to his namesake, but is also our prayer for him, for his siblings, and for us as parents. As life gets more complicated with daily distractions, technology, and busyness, we all need Christ’s help to be strong and courageous.

I thought it would get tricky last year when he started middle school – warned by other parents, books, and media that this would be a critical and difficult time for him. But to my relief, it’s not been what I expected. Joshua still gets excited about an epic soccer game at recess, or a cool robotics battle in class. We still share a common love for fantasy and science fiction, and I take his summer reading books with me on my daily commute. This year, he made the transition from walking to and from school to taking public transportation solo. And the daily departure and arrival text check-ins have become more endearing with emojis and gifs.

I Timothy 4:12 was also given to me at age 13 by my parents, in a NIV study Bible. This verse to be confident in Christ in spite of youth and inexperience, their example of faith, and their on-going prayers are gifts for me, for my children, and for generations to come. Now back in Asia, my mother has led devotions and prayer with my children over Skype almost every Saturday morning for the past two years. And my eight-year old son, Josiah, has started to lead impromptu Bible studies at home with us including worship, prayer, Bible reflection, and “coffee hour.” He calls himself the “pastor” of our home church.

We need the prayers and examples of our elders as much as our young people to live out God’s calling on our lives. We need each other, as we encourage and lead each other into being “strong and very courageous” in Christ. Defying the logic of our world, as a family rooted in the Word and Spirit, we turn neither “to the right (n)or to the left” and are not afraid. Instead, as 1 Peter 1:8 exhorts us, we “rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” This is the legacy of faith and generations.

Maria Liu Wong serves as Dean of City Seminary of New York in Harlem, NYC. She leads a women’s fellowship group and a newcomers’ Beta group with her husband Tony, and volunteers in the children’s ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church Downtown. Her research focuses on urban theological education, women and leadership, immigrant youth, diversity, and action research. She lives in the Lower East Side with her husband and three energetic little New Yorkers, and enjoys creating ways to make time and space for students, faculty (and herself!) to learn from and with each other.