To My Teenagers ⋆ A Delightful Glow

We’re having a party!

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Approximately a year ago, give or take, I was making preparations and plans for a party to celebrate our teenagers. I was still moving slow, much slower than now. It had only been a couple of months since my surgery. But sometimes pain and health makes you more acutely aware that we are promised no moments. Not a single one.

It makes you more aware that celebrations can be very important and making the time to do what matters to you is important, too.

I worked slowly here and there and as the time drew closer I would exclaim in an on-purpose-exaggerated-{rather}-annoying sort of way that

WE WERE HAVING A PARTY!!

As the weekend of the party crept closer on the calendar, it occurred to me that I would like to share some words with my teenagers at the party. I didn’t have a clear idea in mind, I only knew there were a couple of things I wanted to go on record as telling them. I scribbled down some words and ideas and I never did feel it came out as I wanted or that I’d really allowed enough time to prepare.

But I also believe too often, we leave things unsaid that should be said until it’s too late to say them.

I wasn’t going to miss this.

Then, I thought I would record the words here on my blog. And I really thought I’d do it pretty quickly. I guess it depends on how you measure time, but the pretty quickly didn’t happen. Here we are, a year later and I’m sharing the words I gave to my teenagers. This is a rough draft of sorts, but it catches the most of what I gave to them.

I can’t find my printed paper with the words from the party. This is what happens when your days turn into weeks and months and many other ups and downs occur in the in-between.

BUT, most importantly, my feelings about my teens haven’t changed.

We have our ups and downs, our stresses and strains, but at the end of every good day, one thing remains. We are tied together in a bond of love and we say I’m sorry when we need to and we are grateful for these people God has placed us with.

And that brings us to my words from almost-a-year-ago ~

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Tonight, we celebrate!

We celebrate you, Renae Jordan.

We celebrate you, Tucker Scott.

We thank God for creating you and for handing you to us for every moment He sees fit.

Sometimes we wonder if He quite knew what He was doing by entrusting you to us! Did He quite realize how inadequate we are as parents?

And then we remember, “Yes, He knows. He created us too.” 🙂

Though we question our parenting skills, we don’t question the kids God gave us.

Renae and Tucker …. we love you and we think…and know…you are the best kids for us!

Well, make that teenagers!

We are glad God gave you to us.

We can’t even begin to count the number of times through the years that we’ve been greeted with a “Hey Dad” or a “Hi, Mom” by your cheery voices as you came and went. Popping into a room, passing through on your way somewhere, going outdoors and in. We have loved it and we treasure every greeting.

We celebrated when you were born and we celebrate you now.

We adored those first dreamy, baby smiles.

We hung on every coo and gurgle.

We were thankful when you started to sleep all night.

We watched you sit up, learn to crawl, take those first staggering steps.

And we celebrated!

We knew of course, that you were the smartest babies ever!!! 🙂

We delighted in the funny things you said and did and the giggles you gave us.

In June of 2004, Tucker, you were a year and half and after harvest was over you were so worried every time you would see a combine sitting at a farm with its header removed. You were convinced something was dreadfully wrong. You’d look and point and say, “Uh-oh! Uh-oh!” Combines were not supposed to be without their headers!!

Tucker, as harvest approached in 2006, the year you were three, you told us one morning that “Daddy needs to cut his wheat so we can get more applebutter bread!”

Soon after Tucker was born, Renae, when you were three, some of our friends and their one-year-old baby came to see us on a Sunday evening, bringing along a supper of sandwiches and snacks. We gathered around the table and we bowed our heads and we prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to God. When the prayer had ended, you announced proudly, “Cambria looked around with me!”

We also find you as a bustley three-year-old, Renae, and I had asked you to go pick up some of the toys in your room. You headed into your room and then, pretty quickly here you were back out again. When I inquired if you had picked some of the toys up, you truthfully replied, “No, I just looked at some of them!”

And dear girl, you could always take good care of your little brother. We find you getting close to the ages of six and three and one evening the two of you were tucked into bed looking at books. Tucker was trying to tell you which books you could look at. You, being the big sister, informed him, “No, Tucker. I’ll choose my own books. Because you don’t choose things for other people like what kind of ice cream or book.”

But Tucker you definitely tried to help your big sister out. You were both a bit older in this incident and as the two of you were playing, Renae was not sharing something you wanted. You emphatically informed her that “The Bible says you are supposed to share.”

We love the innocence of little people. They provide so much joy!

Yet, here we are already!

We look at each other, your dad and I, and we can’t believe it.

While we don’t for a minute miss potty-training or getting up at night and there are so many great and helpful things about older kids, we’re still amazed that the days have turned into years quite this quickly.

And we now have teenagers!!!

I’ve noticed over the last couple of years an attitude that I bump into among the general public. If I’m asked about my children and I mention teenagers, most people want to offer me sympathy.

It seems that the mere mention of the word teenager makes people groan.

It seems to be the common belief among our world that teenager equals trouble.

Tonight we want to say.

We do not believe this about you.

It’s not always easy to be a teenager. I’ll even venture to say it’s not easy to be a teenager in our world today. This world has a lot of things upside down and a lot of teenagers don’t have anyone to speak life into them.

It’s not always easy to be a parent either. And the thing is Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world!!”

We do not believe that teenager means trouble.

Teenager means you’re growing up.

Teenager means we still parent, but we get to start relating on an older, more adult level. We forge friendships.

You know what?

Never in my Bible can I find a warning, a place where God says, PARENTS: BEWARE. Teenagers are trouble. Just hold on tight and ride through these years and hope for the best.

Nope.

I can’t find it.

I do find directions for parents to direct their children.

I do find for children to obey and honor their parents.

I do find for parents not to provoke their children to wrath.

I do find for parents to love and to instruct and to guide and to be there.

We are thankful for you.

We love watching and seeing the young adults you are growing into.

Teenager means standing on the brink

thoughts to think…

Teenager means new worlds to explore,

Opening new doors…