The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Parenting teenagers can be difficult & scary at times. There will be moments when we will have to speak to our teens about negative behaviors or wrong choices. Teens deal with so much already and it can feel like we are nagging them or being critical of them when all we want to do is help them through this journey called life. Sometimes we can be intimidated by their response, lack of response or the dreaded rolling of the eyes!

I pray for my children constantly. During one of my morning prayers for my children, the Lord gave me this word to study – “afraid.” I felt Him asking me “What are you afraid of?”

Along with Psalm 27:1 as the introduction scripture, here are two more scriptures I read:

Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: Acts 18:9

Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. Deuteronomy 1:17

I didn’t have anything to be afraid of and if any situation was too hard for me, all I had to do was tell it to God. Not only does He hear us, He also gives us the answers we need (Jeremiah 33:3).

A few days before the Lord spoke to me about being afraid, He provided a visual analogy that I witnessed between a grandmother and her toddler granddaughter:

I was driving in a neighborhood when I saw a little girl about two years old and her grandmother walking on the sidewalk. The little girl was happy and smiling or should I say laughing, as she moved closer and closer to the edge of the curb that leads to the street.

I could see her grandmother speaking to her but the girl just stood there and gave her grandma a mischievous smile. I was shocked to see the grandmother just standing there and not moving to get the girl out of harm’s way. At least that’s what it looked like.

The Lord spoke to me and told me that what I just witnessed was a picture of me and my teenage children. Our children can get so close to going out into the “street” they don’t realize what can happen to them. We can’t just stand back and watch them move towards a dangerous place. We have to care enough to help them get back on the path they need to be.

However, in that same situation with the grandmother and little girl there was another message. Had the grandmother reacted too fast, the little girl could have darted out into the street before her grandma could reach her. The grandmother chose to respond instead to the girl’s actions by gently and quietly coaxing her back to safety and onto the right path.

This analogy pierced my heart and made me realize how important it is to be the mom my children need. I can be firm but also wise & gentle. I don’t need to be afraid to speak to my own children because I have nothing to be afraid of!