“Mama, is this the best coffee you’ve ever had?”
I was sipping the cup she brewed using our machine. It was complete with cream, sugar and all.
“It’s good!”
“But… it’s not the best?” she asked.
“It’s good!” I repeated.
She smiled. She could tell I was trying to be nice.
I hugged her. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t the best.
It mattered that she cared enough to do this for me.
I’m so grateful for my sweet daughter. I learn so much from her. I learn more from her than she from me.
This is the thing: I’ve never raised a pre-teen before.
Some days she asks me questions I have no clue how to answer.
Other days, she challenges me…in more ways than one.
Many days, I’m at a loss. I feel like a swimmer flailing my hands above water for a life raft.
Being a teen these days is tough.
Being the parent of a teen seems even harder.
With all the “advice” out there, parents today are expected to do it all: Serve in the PTA, model good behavior, establish house rules, raise children with good manners, raise children who are at the top of the class.
Some days it seems overwhelming.
I’m just glad that I don’t have to do it on my own.
Yesterday, I was reminded by a wise Pastor’s wife, whom I look up to, of this verse:
“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” Isaiah 54: 13
She said that she prays this over her children and inserts their name into it.
One day a long, long time ago, my husband and I dedicated our daughter to the Lord.
Over a decade later, I am reminded that she belongs to Him. She is His.
My God gave me the opportunity to steward these years to teach my sweetheart His ways.
One day, she will take what she has learned in our home and pave the way for her own life.
As a parent, I don’t have to do it “all” on my own.
“All” I have to do is daily pray over her and guide her with the principles and patterns that God gave me in the Bible.
That’s my job…and it’s a big one.
On the days I drive them to school, I ask my kids to repeat these words out loud:
“I am smart. I am bold. I am brave. And I am a child of God.”
In the next few days, as our children don their backpacks and new outfits and enter their schools, may they know WHO they are and WHOSE they are.
And as for us parents, when our hearts flutter as we send them off, may our prayer be this:
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 3 John 1:4
~Elizabeth/Betsy
Photo: The day we dedicated our daughter to God.
