This week I am privileged to guest post at Revealing the Story, a fresh blog filled with stories written by women with lives just like yours and mine. So head on over to read the rest of this post, “Parenting by Faith: Adolescence” and prepare to be blessed by the rich mix of contributors at this sweet site.
Lord, please tell me what to do!
The helpless plea swirled around the room as I knelt by the bed, the door closed and locked, my mind reeling from a brief but loaded incident with my 12-year-old son . . .
My son turned twelve this week. At least I think it was my son. I say this because he is so different than he was just six months ago. He has the same hair, the same slow, deliberate walk, the same eyes, but sometimes I feel like the son I know, the sweet, mild-mannered delight with the ready smile, was abducted by aliens and replaced with a look-alike gremlin of raw testosterone.
And it rattles me.
Sometimes it drives me to a blind run on every parenting book I can lay my hands on. So, as I sat there, I frantically sifted through my options. Biblical principles and wisdom gleaned in parenting classes paraded erratically through my mind, but none addressed the problem directly — and I needed direct help.
Who do I know . . . ? My mind triumphantly fastened on a close friend that had successfully raised three boys — “successful” as in, they have respectable jobs, families, a walk with God, and of the highest priority today —
they weren’t the death of their mother.
Bingo.
I snatched up the phone and dialed. “Hi, you’ve reached 555…” Not the machine! Deflated, I left a pathetic message and hung up.
Now what? My husband was out of town so I had no one else to consult.
I was parenting alone, stranded in a hothouse of pubescent testosterone with my man-child, and had no idea what to do.
Trapped without options, I knelt and prayed again, “Lord, please tell me what to do.” Click here to read the rest at Revealing The Story.
Comments 4
The best thing about the teen years is that there are only nine of them so they don’t last forever.
Janet, you make me laugh! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Soothing words for anyone dealing with a teen son or daughter, or any other difficult person in our lives!
Thanks, Kris. It really made a difference in my relationship with my son. From it, my husband and I learned to “love them through” whatever they faced. When it came to essential standards of behavior (unkindness, violence, etc.,) our love was firm, but otherwise we focused on making him feel loved and accepted.