Teenage Girl Meltdowns

Have you ever been around or raised a teenage daughter? It can be the most rewarding and exhausting experience. My daughter is one of a kind. She is all things good and then some. This post is not really about her as much as you would think. It is about me. In raising a teen daughter....I am often frustrated and scratching my head at her animated responses. I was reminded this summer that I am looking in the mirror.....because that is what I do with God! It was eye opening for sure.....not pleasant of something I wanted to hear, but eye opening.

I'll give you one example. This summer we were tasked with finding a car for my daughter. She was turning 16 and she had on her mind that she would get a truck. After looking at the market and prices of used vehicles.....the idea of her getting a used truck for her first vehicle flew out the window and she was noticeably disappointed. We spent weekends and afternoons pouring through the Car Gurus App, visiting local dealerships, and following leads on used SUV's. My daughter fell in love with a Jeep Compass at several dealerships. The ones we found were either out of our price range or scuffed up and really not taken care of. We even found some undesirable items in one of the glove compartments of one of the vehicles that sent me running. This was a time of stress, disappointment, and high emotions.

My husband and I wanted desperately to make our daughter happy.....to provide a vehicle to her that was safe, in good condition, and something that she would be excited to drive around. We wanted what was best for her! Nonetheless, we were strict with a budget we had set and knew that we needed to stick to it so that our family's finances would be where they needed to be. After a few weeks of frustration, my husband and I turned to really praying for this situation and seeking divine intervention on our behalf. To make a long story short, we found a BRAND NEW Jeep Compass at a dealership that had a phenomenal deal on it WITHIN OUR BUDGET! This was definitely a divine intervention....as we had looked everywhere for a used one and come nowhere near this scenario.

When we were gifted with this miracle transaction we wanted to make it even better for our daughter. We knew this would blow her mind to receive a new vehicle...the one she had fell in love with at used dealerships. She was having a small cookout at home the next day with family and we thought we would sneak and buy the car without her knowing, then have it driven to our home for the reveal. My daughter wasn't having it while we were trying to coordinate the plans. She kept questioning what we were doing and was pouting and sulking about not getting to go look for cars that day, which had been our original plan discussed before we found the deal. I became hot tempered and lost it. It wasn't one of my prettiest moments either. I yelled at her and revealed our plans and how she was ruining something bigger and better than she could have imagined with her ungrateful attitude, need to control the situation, and inability to trust that as her parents we had a bigger and better plan than she did. I yelled out about God and a teddy bear scenario I had seen on social media (pictured below).

Then that moment slapped me across the face as soon as I contributed to a huge meltdown between my daughter and I. I DO THE SAME THING to God! I have a hard time trusting that God has a better plan that something I am holding on to, letting go and giving total control to God. My husband, daughter and I went on to the dealership, my daughter expressed sincere gratitude and cried her eyes out when she saw her new car for the first time. It was still such a sweet experience, but not the big reveal we had planned for her. Does this happen in our lives? Do we settle for something less that God intended sometimes due to meddling or trying to take things over ourselves without his help?

I have had closed doors, an unexpected health complication, and plans that I felt God calling me to the past few months. I have had close encounters with God and concrete confirmation of his presence in my life. When those plans or visions don't come to fruition in my own timing, I start questioning God and whether he is there with me or has abandoned me. I begin worrying about whether I really heard his voice or understood his calling in the first place, or if I just made up things on my own. I totally have my own teenage girl meltdowns! My father in heaven is all knowing. He knows my deepest desires and my heart. His plans are always bigger and better than anything I could have imagined. In moments of parenting my daughter, I learn valuable life lessons myself on how I, myself, respond to God. Parenting my children is sometimes like holding up a mirror to myself in a lot of ways. God is my heavenly father, and he wants what is best for me. I will trust HIM to lead me and HIS timing within my life, not my own.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."