(Based on a Teen’s Testimony)

God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. Eph 4:15 (MSG).

5:00 pm—thirty minutes before the grief session. Mike has time to phone Sarah. “Hi! How’s it going?”

“Okay, Mike. How about you?”

“Be glad when it’s done! Kids okay?”

“They’re fine, honestly. Don’t worry! Just concentrate on what you need to do, Mike.”

“Okay. Thanks for all your help, friend. I’ll pick them up as soon as I can. Bye.”

In the shopping center restroom, Mike cleans up, squeezes a pimple, convinces himself his freckles are fading, and sorts out his school bag. Delaying Tactics. His stomach gripes nervously. For the millionth time he practices what he’ll say.

Through his parents’ trial separation and his Mom working more hours, family life, school life and social life, have become the pits. Mom’s off to work by 7:30. He makes the breakfast, and lunches and walks the kids to school. No big deal, except they fight him, and he’s had to give up his morning paper route.

He brings the kids home after school. No big deal, except he doesn’t get to do the usual, end-of-the-day stuff; hang out with friends, go for a soda, kick a ball around, shoot baskets, or walk home with Sarah. They used to have great talks about heaps of subjects. Now, if he sees her at all, they only talk about his family problems.

He attempts homework, but the kids bicker and fight him some more. He told his grandparents, “I’m ashamed of my hand-in assignments and my grades; I want to be a teacher, for heaven’s sake!”

Sundays in Church, he feels like a hypocrite; he’s full of resentment waiting for his Dad to show up; mostly he doesn’t. They used to be a family that prayed together every. Whatever happened to that? Mike asks himself.

Lately he’s becoming dangerously frustrated around Caleb, Luke, and Jessica. Sometimes he’s so angry he feels he will lash out at them, but they’re just kids. Actually, he’s not much more than that himself; not seventeen yet!

So on the advice of his pastor, grandparents, and teacher; he’s decided to speak to his parents about all their futures.

Mike spots his parents at a table in the food court, their faces expressing the now familiar traces of hostility. He becomes even more determined to speak the truth about his feelings, and their responsibilities.

When Mike is done, the tension is electric. His father’s face is deathly white. His dark chocolate eyes, large and sad, look intensely at his son. His Mom’s eyes fill with tears. Moments pass, then so does the tension. Peace comes.

“I respect the man in you, Mike, his father says as he squeezes Mikes hand really tight, as if pumping life back into both of them. As he stands, he raises Mike and his Mom and draws them close; right there in the very public food court, but Mike doesn’t care. He doesn’t know what the family future will be. He just wants this hug of approval. No! The truth is he wants heaps of hugs, any kind of hugs. He’s just a kid!

When we’re bogged down in any crisis situation, especially when we are hurting, distressed, up-heaved, it is easy to lose sight of God, His Word, and His Will, and the needs of the most precious people in our lives.

We need to keep on reading God’s Word to know His Will, to know how to conduct ourselves, and to know how to love and care decently for our families, ourselves, in fact all peoples. To read God’s Word, to seek God Himself, to wait upon God for His revealed Will is the very best love we can live, and show towards all others.

Pro 29:18 – If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. But, when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.(MSG)

Other versions of this verse, promise happiness for keeping God’s law.

PRAYER: Precious Lord, by Your Spirit, help us to desire and be determined to find Your perfect Will in Your Word everyday of our lives. In Jesus’ Mighty Name. Amen and Amen.

Rosemary Renninson
artrose@dodo.com.au
Westbury, Victoria, Australia