Day 8: When Your Teen Rebels

I’m at point in parenting where I’m actually watching one of my children turn into a completely different person. This teenager that has hijacked my once sweet, caring, considerate, loving daughter has GOT to go.  Please tell me that this doesn’t last forever?! Please tell me that this doesn’t last long at all?! I’m at my wits end with her and I’m not sure if one or both of us will survive the next year if things don’t change!

As I go through this valley I sit and wonder… have I done enough? I mean, she only has a few more years under our roof, a few more years to pour into her everything she needs to be able to make it in this world… have I done enough?

Have I given her what she needs in order to live a life worth living? Will she stay grounded in her Faith or will she turn from it as soon as she walks out the door? More than anything else in my life so far … this scares me to my core. Will my children turn away from God in pursuit of the happiness that will never be found anywhere other than in his presence? 

I am only slightly comforted by Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
What better example of a perfect parent could any of us have then our all knowing God Himself? He created us, He knew exactly what we needed, yet Adam and Eve had free choice. Even they, brought up in the most perfect conditions with the most perfect parent, were disobedient. 

I say this brings me little comfort, because although I know that even if I do everything right, my children have free will… and they may still make bad decisions, which is very bitter sweet. 

I only pray that if any of my children do decide to turn away, they will return to Him one day… 

Proverbs 22:6 says - Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Luke 15: 17-20 In the story of the Prodigal Son says - “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

So as I walk along this unbeaten path in my life with my oldest child, I am scared. I am sure we will go through these same emotions and obstacles with each of my other three children once they reach these “I’m a teenager and I should be able to make all my own decisions” stages – but I am sure it will not be any less scary with any of them… not when their eternity is at stake. I want them to continually Seek His Face!

Do any of you have any advice, any words of comfort for a scared to death parent?