Sunday, April 22, 2007

Being a parent is getting scarier every day. I just finished watching a TV movie about a teenager who killed a mother and daughter while drag racing. I watched for two reasons: 1) I'm a sucker for a TV movie and 2) when I was in college I knew a young woman who was killed by a teenager who was drag racing.

When I started watching the movie, I was remembering Fronie. I was a freshman in college and she was a couple of years older. I had visited the BSU, so she and another girl were following up. After that first meeting, she was always friendly to me and encouraging. I had the privilege of knowing her for almost two years. She was an amazing girl -- working her way through college cleaning several houses and living with a family and taking care of their daughter. She was on her way to pick up the girl from school.

When I was in my last year of college, the BSU group I sang with performed a program based on Fronie's life. The way her death was described is still fresh in my mind...when Fronie topped the hill, she found herself in the presence of God. She was an amazing Godly woman, and while I am still sad that she died so tragically, I have a new perspective on the experience.

Although I strive every day to teach my children how to make good choices, they will still make poor decisions. I can only pray that their worst decisions may be the clothes they wear, the jobs they take or the college they do or do not attend. I know my children will make mistakes, but I don't like to go through life dwelling on what may go wrong and prefer to focus on the expectation that things will go right. However, I know there are instances every day where good kids who have never been in trouble are responsible for some bad choices.

D and I just have to take advantage of teachable moments, and today's moment came when a neighbor girl told Anna to go home and that she didn't want to be her friend. While I longed to tell Anna that this girl and her sister are brats, I just encouraged her to stand up to anyone mistreating her and to walk away if necessary. I know girls can be very mean and they still use the empty threat of "I won't be your friend anymore" or even worse "I won't be your BEST friend," but hopefully, we can instill Anna with the confidence to dismiss these people.

She's only 8 -- those teenage years are not going to be pretty.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah. Those teenage years are looking pretty scary.

Dayna said...

Terrifying. I just hope we all make it through intact.