Navigating Teenage RebellionSample

Day 12: Less Talking More Praying

I verbally process all of the time. Words, words, words! During the difficult teenage chapter of my life there was an onslaught of other things simultaneously happening. While my teens were lying, my parents were dying. We were in a deep financial valley, not to mention that I was very menopausal just to name a few. I was so overwhelmed. I was definitely at the proverbial “end of my rope”. It was a difficult, beautiful, stripping, exhausting time. 

In my attempts to have a grateful heart I wrote: “Thank you Lord for wanting my whole heart, my whole mind and my whole soul…so much…that you would strip everything away and leave me with a sweet emptiness that demands that I lay at rest in Your arms.” This new perspective of Him totally pursuing me no matter what it took brought a deep rest and peace after exhaustion. I gave up the battle. I surrendered to “Not mine but Thine” once again. I stopped talking as much and started praying more. I was tired of words. My words! Their words! I just wanted to be held by a good good God that was a good good Father to all of us. I needed to lead my family with a deep rest in my soul.

This started a beautiful season of prayer, trust and intimacy. I prayed about everything and trusted God to hear.I refused to enter a battle that I could not win but trusted His timing. I found a deep rest.

Do you find yourself at the “end of the rope”? What a good place to be if it leads your control-freak nature to a beautiful surrender in the Lord. This can be a transforming place where humility and weakness reveal His true strength and purposes for your life. May it be so.