This event happened several years ago, and the daughter has never been back to jail. She is graduating from high school this year as an honor graduate.

(In PWR, we normally assign support people to parents who are in a crisis or who are facing a sizable challenge with their children. It's a standard service provided by our group.)

Still another family had to go to court over a crime their son had committed. The parents were embarrassed and afraid. A set of parents from our PWR group accompanied them to court and sat beside them, in companionship with them, throughout the proceedings. The parents were greatly comforted by these understanding peers.

Huddle up with helpers. Develop some supporters and expand your united front to include this grand ally. God will help you through your ministry to one another. Keep building the guard's tower taller and stronger: We are developing a united front.

If that is the case, there are at least three ways you can go. You and your spouse can bind together to form a support group of two. You can chart your course with this book.

Or you can develop an informal support group composed of family members and close friends who will read this book with you and agree to support you in harmony with it. These individuals must be the kind of people who can understand your objectives and work toward those same objectives with you. They can give you companionship and support you emotionally. They can help by providing an alternative place for your teenager to be (in preference to his or her hitting the streets). They can help by steadying the teenager when your presence is not effective in that way (for whatever reason) and by being individuals to whom the teenager can unload problems or share feelings.

Or you can become the key to forming a parent support group in your community. The manual is in your hands. But please don't take the lead unless you have a well-established reputation for being a Christian and being a "together" person. The way this group will be received in your community will largely depend on the first individuals who represent it. If you don't think you qualify to lead in starting a group, then you can be a catalyst for starting the group: Put someone else in front and support him or her diligently.

A support group like Parenting Within Reason (PWR) is a group of parents who have formed a companionship of mutual support based on the concepts and principles contained in this book. Teenagers are not allowed to attend the meetings.

The group finds a youth and family counselor who agrees with the concepts and