Hi, My Name is John

She lied to me.  She stood right there in front of me and lied.  When I warned her she better tell the truth or I’d have to give her consequences, she looked me in the eye . . . and lied.  And I wanted to cry.

There are so many times as a parent that I feel ineffective.  No matter the consequence, no matter the number of times we address the issue, there are just some places in my child’s heart that I can not seem to reach.  As my daughter quickly reaches her teenage years, those unreachable places seem more and more out of grasp.

The Closing Door

As I finished rebuking my pre-teen, again, for the harsh way she used her words with her little sister, I turned to leave the bathroom.  I had no sooner stepped outside the threshold when I heard the door shut behind me . . . a little too hard.  SLAM!  “That’s it!” I thought to myself as I spun around on my heel.

“But Mom, I didn’t mean to shut it that hard!” were her defensive pleas as I dished out the corresponding consequence for her defiant behavior.  “You don’t understand!”

She claims she didn’t intend to slam the door; and, however naively, I believe she’s telling the truth as she sees it.  But what I responded to was not how hard she closed the door; it was the fact she closed the door at all.  The bathroom door was simply an outward expression for the door I sensed she was closing in her heart.  As she marched away, God convicted me as well.  I thought to myself, “Oh honey, I understand alright.  I understand all too well.”

Against Unknown Odds

My 11 year old is a compulsive gambler.

Recently, my daughter AllyLu has been wanting to stretch her pre-teen wings.  She has decided, in all her wisdom, that she is mature enough to handle scary movies.  Up to this point, we have kept her fairly sheltered from viewing frightening images.  As you’ll see, we did so out of necessity.

Less than 2 years ago, she was watching the movie Beethoven (the one about the dog).  Harmless, right?  At one point in the movie, the dog steps on a remote control and turns on the TV.  An old black-and-white werewolf movie pops into view.  You know the kind, when the costuming and special-effects seems more comical than fearsome.  The whole scene lasts less than 30 seconds before the dog steps on the remote again and the TV blips off.

She had nightmares about werewolves for months.