Hi. My name is Connie and I am the mother of a teenage girl. Ugh. There should be a support group just for parenting teens! Oh wait, there is. It’s Facebook! I am beyond blessed with awesome kids, but my Netflix addicted teen is driving me mad. She’s excelling at school, gets her homework done, accepted to her choice colleges, but her love of streaming shows is getting in the way of her applying for much needed scholarships. I am grateful that we are able to raise our girls in a nice city with great schools, but we just are not able to fully pay for college for them. They have to work, get good grades, and apply for scholarships. I don’t think working hard for your future is a bad thing! Work ethic for my high schooler is not a problem, but she has this paralyzing fear that she’s not good enough, so why bother? She measures herself up against these imaginary kids and then doesn’t even try. Instead she retreats to the safety and comfort of her Netflix show.
As a mom who reads the gospel and fully believes it, this behavior of hers truly is infuriating. In the book of Philippians 4:6-7, Paul’s words to the church are, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I know it comes with maturity, prayer, and mindfulness to put the gospel to work for you, and teens are just on the cusp adulthood, but I truly wish they believed more scripture and took it to heart. God loves these kids so, so, much, and He wants them to know this, love themselves more, and each other.
So in the meantime, I’ll continue to get on my kid’s case about scholarship hunting, praying she learns to love herself even a fraction of the amount Jesus loves her, and yelling at her to hit pause on that show she’s streaming.
