I’ve never done it and never thought I would. I am here suggesting that if you are rearing a pre-teen or a teen (or are one!) that you read an article in “Time” magazine article from November 2016 on teen depression. The stats on the subject are truly scary; it is a sad commentary on the effect of modernity on children.

The article is excellent on data—difficult as it is to measure—and has much to say about causes. Glaringly inadequate advice is given. Not much more than “ask the ‘pros,’ check out our website, and ‘be kind to dumb animals.'”

No one will be surprised that neither God nor any idea of life having ultimate significance is mentioned. No transcendence of morals or meaning! You will, of course, find that in God’s manual for human existence, the Bible.

None of that is to deny the value of teaching life-skills, loving care, mentoring, etc., by parents, teachers, coaches, et al. —often good sources of help but hardly enough without God at their center. One notes, in passing, the glaring lack of any reference pastors or rabbis being a part of the healing community.

Had “Time” made any such reference, it would have been kicked out, forthwith, from the pantheon (!) of modernity “intelligentsia,” whose only god is the hapless one in the mirror.
Jeremiah’s word comes to mind here: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns which can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13)