Greetings Parents!
A thought occurred this week, of how my teens want to be like everyone else, but they also want to be treated special. They want to fit in with the crowd, but they want to be someone unique and special – just check all the social media posts! Everyone wants to be famous, but they all want to “fit in” and be accepted. They are slightly different, I guess, wanting to be special in a way that everyone thinks is wonderful and to which they want to be a part.
At the heart of it, we all want to be accepted, to be people others are happy to be around, to be loved, even to be admired. How to convince our kiddos that they are already accepted! God accepts them as they are
from conception
! Every one of us was treasured more than gold, diamonds, and everything the world holds precious – we are so precious God cares enough to know the number of hairs on ourhead. He doesn’t need to know this – nor do we really need Him to know this much about us, but He cares enough that He
wants
to know that much about us. Just as we send our children to school and monitor their grades and progress, not needing to know every second of their activities, so too God doesn’t need to know – But He cares enough to make sure He DOES know.
There is NOTHING that happens that He doesn’t see and that He won’t share with us – possibly before all humanity – after our deaths. Every good and bad thing that happened to us – or that we caused to happen to others – will be reviewed. Was our fury at being insulted truly validated? Was it truly righteous anger or a sense of being affronted? Did our protection of our ego rather than bringing God’s harmony fall within God’s plan for love and peace? What are our true motivations? Ensuring the self-protection of our image or sharing God’s Light with the world?
So many saints were considered fake and problematic to those closest to them. The closer they drew to Christ, the more spite that grew from those around them who were focused on the world. Chris t promised a cross, not popularity. As parents, the closer we tried to lead our children to Christ the more we are SO not popular with our children and with those who crave the joys of this world over the joys of heaven.
A dangerous trap is seeking popularity among our peers – whether as teens or parents. The hardest tests of my life have been when my children had one desire that was fulfilled by many other parents and I thought it was not appropriate for him. How I longed to be of the world! I knew my choice would affect my child’s “now” in ways that he would resent, but when I considered his soul, I could not imagine standing before God and not dwindling to dust when He asked how and why I could allow my child to be exposed to what I knew would lead him to accept immorality as normal. Would “everyone else was doing it” or “it was the norm” be acceptable answers? Or would I let the scales fall from my eyes then and realize that I cooperated with placing pitfalls to hell for the person for whom I promised primary responsibility to lead to heaven.
Hug your children tight and protect them from what hurts their soul more than their popularity! The regrets and rewards are eternal!
-- Linda Bader, Coordinator of Religious Education
P.S. Did you know... Because our Protestant brethren removed the book of Tobit from the Bible (after 1,500 years of accepting it!) they do not know St.Raphael! Not a ninja turtle or painter, this archangel is known as a healer, rather like St. Michael. A companion to Tobit on a difficult journey and mission, he is ready to serve God by serving us, healing our spiritual and physical selves!