It's been awhile since I posted on this blog. The thought has crossed my mind but I never could come up with a light and positive spin on the teen years that our kids are currently in. I always felt I would come off as whining or complaining which I detest and refuse to do. This does not include venting to a chosen few but it's altogether different in my mind. Venting in my mind is courage summoning and strength renewing for whatever current battle is before me. I love a challenge and boy do I have one or three to be exact!
We made the decision to put our two youngest in public school last year. They graduated from the sweet cocoon of Christian school education to the carnal world of Public school education.Truly, Sodom and Gomorrah has nothing on Public School, but it does have special services that our kids need to hopefully graduate with a high school diploma. It also has wonderful loving personnel like Officer Brunson, the police officer who my kids adore and who is a kind but firm adult on campus.
Public High School is the first real testing ground for who a person chooses to be. It's a giant social experiment where there is mostly self doubt and fear driving teenagers to find a place, any safe place to land. While these pressures are hard for any teenager to navigate, they are especially difficult for our adopted children who already struggle with self doubt and trust issues. Their faith and values are the very picture of James 1, blown and tossed by the wind, compounded by misery when their bad decisions are found out and consequences follow. These actions have also uncovered serious issues with communication which is of vital importance for any real or lasting relationship with anyone. Are we having fun yet? These are the scenes not shown on the Lifetime movies. And if they did, I would definitely change the channel. I can see though that these struggles while difficult and not fun are necessary for the final lessons we can give to our children as parents, how to have really hard discussions and look seriously at insecurities and temptations. As of yet, a light bulb hasn't come on and not one of them have come running to us repenting from (insert bad decision) thanking us for our incredibly wise counsel. I'm not holding my breath for that and that's not what's important anyway, although it does sound lovely. What's important is that we are still here loving them and trying our best to show them the way they should go, the way of Jesus. We are running the race every single day to win the prize! The race is long and sweaty, tiring and sometimes we want to give up but with God’s help we’ll keep running.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self -control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified
