Before the parents arrive, cover a large area on a wall with butcher paper.  Title the wall, "Our Kids Are Awesome."  Write adjectives on the wall like graffiti describing the positive qualities you see in the youth in your youth group.

As parents arrive, tell them you have started the wall by writing down some of the qualities you see in their children.  Give them a marker and ask them to write down a few positive adjectives describing each of their teenagers.  Give every parent a chance to write on the wall.

Start the meeting...

Pass out copies of "He is..." to every parent.  Apologize for the lack of punctuation and ask them to add the punctuation.  

He is a young man yet experienced in sin and wickedness he is never found in opposing the works of Satan he takes delight in the downfall of his neighbors he never rejoices in the prosperity of friends he is always ready to help in destroying the peace of society he takes no pleasure in serving the Lord he is uncommonly active in spreading hatred among his friend he finds no joy in helping to promote the cause of Christianity he has been very active in attempting to tear down the church he makes no effort in trying to overcome his evil passions he works hard to build up Satan's kingdom he lends no aid in spreading the gospel among heathen people he contributes daily to the devil he will never go to heaven he must go where he will receive his reward.  

Tell the parents, notice how easy it is to read this negatively.  In reality, this is how it should be read:

He is a young man yet experienced.
In sin and wickedness he is never found.
In opposing the works of Satan he takes delight.
In the downfall of his neighbors he never rejoices.
In the prosperity of friends he is always ready to help.
In destroying the peace of society he takes no pleasure.
In serving the Lord he is uncommonly active.
In spreading hatred among his friend he finds no joy.
In helping to promote the cause of Christianity he has been very active.
In attempting to tear down the church he makes no effort.
In trying to overcome his evil passions he works hard.
To build up Satan's kingdom he lends no aid.
In spreading the gospel among heathen people he contributes daily.
To the devil he will never go.
To heaven he must go where he will receive his reward.  

Tell the parents "Same kid but a different point of view.  Let's ask God to see our own kids from His perspective."

Have an open-ended question time: What are some reasons adults look down on young people?  What are some ways that teenagers respond to being looked down upon?  In what ways does the church reinforce negative views of teenagers?

Divide the group into groups of 3 families.   Have everyone share a response to this question: "Describe a specific incident when your child has been an example to you in speech, behavior, love, faith, or purity?"

Bring the group back together and have those parents who want to share their stories to the entire group do.  Ask all the parents for examples of how they affirm their teens when they see them doing well.  Use this time as a time for parents to "borrow" other parenting tips.

Put the focus back on the graffiti wall.  Give each parent a different colored marker for each of their teens.  Ask them to underline all the qualities on the wall that could describe their teen.  Have them repeat with a different color for each of their teens.  This will get crowded as parents move in for position on the wall but this is okay.  Also be sensitive to parents for whom the activity is difficult because their kids are struggling.  Help them think of positive traits to affirm their kids in spite of the fact that negative traits seem to be more obvious.

Close the meeting by giving the parents a chance to write their teens a letter.  You can either collect the letters for you to mail or encourage the parents to be creative in how they give the letter to their teen.

Keep the graffiti wall up for a few weeks.  Let the teens see the words that are written about them.  Let them wonder what all those underlined words have to do with them.  After a while, tell them what their parents think of them.