Speeding Toward the Finish Line

When your child graduates from high school, it's a huge accomplishment... for the parents. I read today that having young children is physically demanding, but having teenagers is emotionally demanding. Amen, sista!

Perhaps the greatest pressure comes from the culture of these teenagers. If your child is in the midst of a generation obsessed with drinking, drugs, sexual immorality and lack of morals, you might think that sounds like every other generation. I can tell you that it's not. This group of "children" face more of everything than any generation in the past... more STDs, more AIDS, more binge drinking, more promiscuity, more drug addiction, more profanity... just more of everything.

And less of Jesus.

Sure, there are a few kids who have held on spiritually. But they are swimming up stream and need our support. And the kids swimming down stream need it even more. My husband and I are more convinced than ever that our call is to help young people. It's always been that way, but the need is more desperate now. An entire segment of our culture has shifted to the world.

So as I face the finish line of one part of life - and a sense of relief to have made it - I am also facing the starting line of another four years. And to combat the stress of thinking about that journey, I am looking up. I am focusing on the Lord and His amazing power to sustain my child. I am asking Him to get us all to the next finish line. And more than that, to get us there successfully. With Him.