Learning how to love and be loved is like archery lessons that teach us how to cast out fear: aim for the bulls-eye, where the love of God rests and there is peace. Hopefully we are all learning how to become better versions of ourselves, holding one accountable with a mercy and a heart full of hope and faith that the grace of God carries us forward closer to Him when we seek His face.

My faith tells me that the gift of intelligent life and free will requires me to carefully examine my thoughts, because that is where pride starts: in a lofty thought which may be subtle and reinforced by society. Being successful in the culture of man, does not begin with seeking and doing the will of God. So in this cyber-powered society, I pray for wisdom in all things, so that my path is in alignment …

My mother heart asks You LORD to show me Your divine plan this day for me, my family and my mission…so that I may let go of hopes and desires that are of my own invention separate from Your good will for me, my family and my community. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD, And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

 

All it takes is

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Daily offers compelling insight about the neuro development of the reward systems of the adolescent brain, the shame experiences of childhood, and the nature of addiction as an illness that can be successfully treated when we focus on the illness, which he posits is not about the drug. “Addiction is an illness resulting from affect dysregulation,” he said. “It is a pathological relationship to intoxication. So it does not matter which drug is involved.”

When my youngest (who is 25 years old today) was 12 years old, he called me into the garage. He had been sorting the recycling. That was one of his incomes in addition to a paper route and walking dogs in the neighborhood. “Oh maaaa-ther!,” he called, in a very whimsical tone. He opened the garage door from the hall in our home, to reveal all of the recycling sorted, and in the very center were all of the empty wine bottles… and there were a lot of them. It is important to note here that I am the consumer of wine in our home. I usually have a glass at dinner and while preparing dinner. He smiled and suggested, “Let’s count them, shall we?”

What do tech-savvy teens need from parents? They need parents to provide a safe place where they can talk about the real pressures and insecurities they face.

Every modern parent must consider that in their cyber realm, youth accessing and using drugs without direction of a physician may seem like such a normal thing to do – especially when responding to the amount of stress and peer pressure hyped in social media.

Do you remember the first time you experienced shame as a child? I do. When I was about seven years old, a neighbor’s child brought out a Polaroid photo of his mother, taken by his father, and showed it to all of the children gathered on the sidewalk. He had found it in her underwear drawer.

When to say yes and how to say no to friend requests is an important life skill for youth growing up with the intensified peer pressures of social media. In his book, Hurt.20: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers (Youth, Family, Culture), Dr. Chap Clark concludes that the modern teen, with all of the on-line connectivity to peers and family is an incredibly lonely and stressed out generation of adolescents. And according to Student Society For Science, a recent study finds that youth with too many friend connections in their social networks are at risk for increased levels of stress which floods the brain with cortisol thus impacting learning as well as quality of life and mental health.

The William Glasser Institute offers insights about human nature that has practical application for raising tech-savvy kids. Glasser’s Choice Theory describes how every individual has command and control over thoughts and actions, while feelings and the physiological responses (the senses and emotions) to life’s events and experiences individuals do not control -they just happen. This means that we can easily be deceived by the feelings inspired by experiences on and off line.