Tag Archives: teenager

She’s home!

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I knew it wasn’t going to be a very restful night for me. It’s not that I was worried, just waiting. My youngest was on her way home from spring break, traveling with her friend and her parents all the way home, straight through.

They weren’t due in until around six a.m. and so, in typical mom fashion, just about every two hours I turned over and checked the clock, said a prayer and tried to go back to sleep.  It was a long night!

When I heard the door shut just before 6, I jumped out of bed, grabbed my bathrobe and hurried to the kitchen to hug my girl. She’s home! Thank you, God.

It’s always been that way during my years as a mommy: if any of the girls were out I couldn’t sleep deeply until they were in the house. There’d be one thing on my mind ’til they came in: their safe return.  Moms out there, I’m sure you can relate! 

As I was thinking about this this morning while eating breakfast, I heard God tell me that is how eager, anxious, even desperate He is for all his kids to come home, to be in His house, in His arms.

Remember the story of the prodigal son? And how the father stood day after day looking down the road toward the horizon, hoping to see the silhouette of his rogue, wayward son coming back to him? 

What if all of us who are already “safe” at home with God shared his inextinguishable compassion and consuming desperation for our brothers and sisters still “out there” to come home?

I know whenever He hears one of them coming in, He runs to them to wrap them in a huge hug, His heart nearly bursting with joy as He smiles broadly, saying, “you’re home!”

God, stir in me a restlessness for those who aren’t home yet. Help me know how to call them, show then the way to You.

When he (the lost son) was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.   Luke 15:20 MSG

I don’t want to think about that today

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You may have noticed, if you’ve read my posts in the last few weeks, that my relationship with and parenting of one of my teenage daughters pretty much consumes my thought-life lately.

You know, parenting is really hard!  I hear all parents everywhere shout “amen!”  I have always loved being a mom and there have been other difficult times along the way, this is just a different type of difficulty.   It’s new territory for me and for John but thankfully not for God.

After a particularly challenging day and evening yesterday, I drove to work this morning I talking with God, Continue reading →

The God of Open Doors

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In a teenager’s eyes, sometimes the parent appears as a daunting obstacle to freedom, a task master laying down rule after rule in pure enjoyment of squishing every joy from her life.  This definitely colors the relationship between teen and mom or dad.  Her preconceived notions of automatic “no’s” and restrictions may cause her to just decide to do something without asking, ask with angry defenses standing tall, or buck and kick against it all like a wild bronco.  In truth, the parents are laying boundaries out of love.  They don’t enjoy holding her back from fun and friends.  They want the absolute best for her.  Helping her learn to live responsibly and submit to authority is key.  Staying within those lines drawn by her parents, she will actually experience real freedom.  It seems backwards but it’s true.

What if instead of thinking of God as a God of “no’s”, rules, and restriction we saw Him for who he really is? Continue reading →

I love you

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A husband and wife sat together at the kitchen table in awkward silence.  They had decided, having trouble getting along lately, that perhaps they should share with one another the frustrations they had with each other by each making a list.  After some quiet thought and pencil scratching it was time to share their complaints.  The husband read his wife’s first. A long list of his faults filled the page, and then another page. Continue reading →

My mom, my friend

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img_0614I just enjoyed a few days with my mom.  She came over to visit since my girls are on spring break so I took two days off work.  We saw a movie, shopped ’til we dropped (groceries and the mall), ate some M & M’s and ice cream, drank diet cokes & coffee, and just relaxed.  My favorite part of the visit was when we had breakfast together at Bob Evans one morning, not because of the yummy omelet and pancake, but because of the heartfelt open conversation.

One of my mom’s famous lines when I was a teenager was “I’m your mom, so I can’t always be your friend.”  In other words, “I’m laying down the law here whether you like me or not.  We’re not gonna be buddies right now.”  It was the right thing to do and I’ve told my girls that quite a few times myself.  They just love it.

Thankfully that’s only true for a while.  Once I got married and began my life with John the relationship changed a little.  We were more friends than mom and daughter, though I still felt like her little girl.  When I became a mom myself, all sorts of light bulbs went on in my head as I experienced the joys and trials of raising little ones.  “Ohhhhh – now I see why she said that or did that.”  As the years go by, I’ve become more and more comfortable just being my mom’s friend.   The roles have changed.  I’m not the self-centered teenager I used to be.  I actually see that my mom has needs, has hurts, has things she wants and needs to talk about.  She wants to share joys and answers to prayer and have me rejoice with her.  It never occurred to me before when my mind was preoccupied with dating, doing my own thing, and arguing with her about curfews.  I forgot that my mom and dad were people, too, not just parents.  Imagine that!

As we sat and visited the other day, my eyes were opened a little bit more to the hurts my mom has trudged through and how God has ministered to her heart.   Continue reading →