the heart of a teenager

"I am weary from moaning, every night I flood my bed with tears, I drench my couch with weeping. My eyes are wasting away from grief."

I now have a granddaughter who is full steam ahead teen. Recently she has been texting me her anxieties. "Why do I feel alone right now?" "Why is my friend being so mean to me?" "What do I do with my feelings when I really like a boy and he's moving away soon?" "Do you think I am too young to be in love?" and on and on, questions about life and why its so tough. I'd have to say that this is a mixed blessing. I am grateful she is willing to include me in her quest for answers, but it reminds me of the "greater than life pressures" that faces peeps in this difficult life stage.

Yet, are any of us ever exempt from such anxieties? Oh, maybe the circumstances are different, maybe the stakes are higher and maybe maturity helps us better make sense of what's happening (BTW, this is the biggest issue for teens). However, while the quote above sounds like the late night texts I have been receiving, it is actually from Psalm 6 where David is lamenting his troubled soul.

None of us escape a "troubled soul", Why? Because all emotion is simply a complex human response to discrepancies arising from our expectations. Positive emotions come when we exceed our expectations and negative ones come when they are unmet. Specifically, anxiety is the fearful anticipation that our expectations will NOT be met based on how we view ourselves and the world around us.

The bottom line for my granddaughter and all of us is that anxiety and fear are a crisis of faith. Basically, we trust that our soul's well-being is met through our circumstances rather than through God's loving reign over our life. We believe we know what is best for us and those we love. That's where maturity helps. One thing I have learned is that I may be the last peep that knows what's best for me :-)

I regularly encourage my granddaughter by reminding her of an eternal truth. God loves us and desires the best for us. While Satan cannot effect our eternal destiny, he can surely demoralize us with fear and anxiety by distracting us from what God is doing and how He sees us. Pondering the invisible and eternal truths of God when our feelings suggest otherwise is always worth pondering .....