March 18, 2014
Dear St. Paul’s Family,
Today I am officially the father of a teenager.
I don’t know how that sentence strikes you. For those who have been down this path with
your own children, the idea of having a teenager in the house again might give
you the shivers. Not me. At least not yet. So, I decided to process the fullness of my
emotions with this letter that I shared with Grace this morning:
Dear Grace,
Thirteen years ago
today, you took your first breath and opened your eyes to a world that
instantly became brighter the moment you entered it. You don’t remember any of your earliest days,
of course, but your mother and I would not trade in any of those precious
moments for anything in the world. There
are memories I will always treasure, more than nearly any other: comforting you at night by laying you on my
chest to feel the thrum of my throat and the beat of my heart; singing you to
sleep with the hymn “This is a Day of New Beginnings;” swinging you in my arms
in a makeshift baby swing that elicited your tiny shouts of “Again! Again!”
Along the way, you have
became your own person. You have
developed a voracious appetite for reading and a curiosity to learn more about
the world. You have cultivated an eye
for artistry and a skill for creating beautiful things. You are a hard working and stellar student,
and we have never had to worry about your conduct at school. And your sociable spirit and ease in new
situations make you readily open and available to befriending new people. Those qualities will serve you well as you
enter a new chapter of your life that will be marked with dramatic changes and
roller coaster adjustments. That is all part
of being a teenager.
Teenager. You know, Grace, if we stop and think about
it, the label “teenager” is really just a construct of our numerical
system. Because we happen to name the
numbers after twelve and before twenty with the suffix “-teen”, we ascribe them
with some uniform significance. But
your teen years will encompass a wide gamut of developmental, relational, and
psychological events, from junior high all the way up to college. Adolescence doesn’t begin the moment one
turns thirteen, just as a teenager doesn’t instantly become an adult when one
turns twenty. It is much more
complicated than that.
Think about how different
cultures designate “coming of age,” for youth.
Jewish people observe bar mitzvahs for 13-year old boys and bat mitzvahs
for 12-year old girls. When girls in
some Latin American countries turn fifteen, they are celebrated with a “quinceanera.” Korean youth come of age on precisely the
Monday of the third week in May of their nineteenth year. And even in this country, some would consider
turning thirteen to be not nearly as big a deal as turning sixteen, when they
get their driver’s license!
So, in some ways,
today is really just another day. But
it’s still a good day. Because it links past
with promise, fond memories with future possibilities. Your twelve years of joy, curiosity,
intelligence, and hard work have set you on a course to chase your dreams and
make a difference in the world. But to
get there, you will have to clarify your passion,, hone your skill, set your convictions,
and figure out who you really want to be.
That, if nothing else, is what being a teenager means.
So here is my prayer
for you. It’s straight out of the Bible,
which, as you are learning in our Confirmation class, can be a source of great
guidance throughout your life. These
prayers come straight from some of the most famous youth in the Bible. Emulate them, and you will walk the path that
God has set before you:
Like Samuel, may you
sharpen your listening skills to hear God’s voice and seek the guidance of
elders in your life.
Like Esther, may you
exhibit courage and compassion for the sake of others, “for such a time as
this.”
Like, Miriam, may you
grow in your love for music, and may your song lead people to new life.
Like Joseph, may you
withstand any adversity that comes your way, compromising neither your
convictions or your principles, and practice the transformative power of
forgiveness.
Like David, may you
cultivate a love for God in your heart, and may you learn to prioritize your
inward character over your outward appearance.
Like Mary, may you
always be obedient to God’s best purpose and will for your life, so that your
soul may magnify the Lord, and so that you may be a bearer of good news for
others.
And most of all, be
like Jesus, who during his teenage years “grew in wisdom and stature, and favor
with God and with people.”
Grace, always know that
I am immensely proud of you, and I know your mother is, too. You are loved for who you are, regardless of
what your successes and failures in life may be. Enjoy these tender years of your youth and
seize each day fully, so that the potential of tomorrow becomes the foundations
of your past. And remember that you
will never be alone.
I love you,
Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment