Are You Behaving Like a Teenager?

The first line in my prayer journal today read like this, "Father, I need some parental advice!"

As a mother of five daughters, I am sometimes completely overwhelmed by parenting. My daughters ages are 26,20,16,11,2. My oldest is married and is a mother herself to a 4 year old daughter and a 3 week old son. Under my care, or influence, are daughter's from every season imaginable ( toddler to preteen to teen to young adult to young married mom). I just seem to master one area and the next daughter moves in to that same area and challenges me all over again. No two are the same and what worked for one never seems to work for the next. It's a constant battle to adapt.

Lately, the teenager has been giving me a run for my money. Today, I needed to vent a little during my prayer time and then seek some parental advice from my heavenly Father. As I vented, I already could sense the tables turning away from my daughter and turning toward me. I could see this was going to head in a correcting session for me instead of getting the sympathy I was maybe seeking.

As I wrote words like, "I have given everything to my daughter who is not grateful and instead returns the favor by being rebellious and deceitful. I have sacrificed everything for her and she just wants to run far away from me. I love her and she rejects my love and instead wants to embrace the love of someone who is not good for her. I know what awaits her - pain, suffering, and maybe, destruction. I desperately want to stop her from having to experience what lays in wait but she refuses to heed my words."

Can you see for yourself where this is going? The Spirit convicted me that Jesus would know EXACTLY what I was saying because this is how believers act all the time toward him. He sacrificed everything. He poured out his whole life for us. He loves us. He knows what waits in store for us because of the foolish decisions we have made and the stubborn, self sustaining, know-it-all attitude we wear.

The parental advice came as I saw exactly how Jesus handles these situations with us. He is patient. He is forgiving. He knows our sinful, earthly frame - our tendency to want to do things the hard way-our way.

I saw first of all, that I needed to seek his forgiveness for my own foolishness. I saw myself behaving toward Jesus just like the teenager I was complaining about.

Then, I knew to follow his example by extending the same patience, love, forgiveness, and understanding to my daughter that he so graciously extends to me every minute of the day. In his strength, I can do that, and I can hope for the day her love returns to me. His advice came in a round about way but I am thankful for the opportunity to examine my own heart and seek repentance.

What about you? Are you behaving like a teenager? Do you need to repent of rebellious ways and foolish choices? I know firsthand how gracious our Father is to those who repent and turn back to him. I hope you will experience that gracious love today as well.