Giving Birth to Adults

Oh, just the idea of pushing out an adult instead of a baby makes one shudder! I just picture a poor mama pushing and almost splitting in two! What a mental picture. Yet, as parents that's exactly what we're doing with our teens. We are in labor all over again! At first we're excited and look forward to each movement, kick, hic-up. Then as the teen year progress and we find ourselves in the late 2nd early 3rd trimester we realize how hard it really is. We're huffing and puffing more. We find ouselves having more trouble sleeping at night and needing more naps during the day. We find it uncomfortable and not quite what we exprcted. As we progress even further we find ourselves wondering if we've done all the right things or prepared them well enough. The thing is...just like with child birth, whether we feel ready or not that birth day is coming.

Thankfully we are not giving birth physically, but the emotional birthing process can be exhausting. I'm learning to breath:) Learing to remind myself and my teens that we are going toward the same goal and that we are on the same team. With child birth we have to work with the contractions not against them. It is often difficult to tell the difference between the braxton hicks contractions as they prepare our bodies for the future. What our teens go through and the challenges and even the challenging of authority are like those pre-labor contractions that help prepare us for the real thing. They help our children take ownership of what they really believe so when they emerge from the womb of our home they will be ready to cry out to our Lord and to seek Him for nourishment:) That knowledge doesn't make the contractions any less uncomfortable but it does help us to know they have a real purpose. May the Lord be glorified in our efforts:) Know that the birth into adulthood is coming and let us ebrace the time we have left to influence our children in such significant ways:)