BE A TIGER FOR YOUR TEENS
By Colleen Drippe
Mother – what would you do if a wild animal attacked one of your children?
That’s a silly question. We all know exactly what you would do. You would become a wild animal yourself. A tiger.
Defending our young is not just an instinct, though as an instinct it is something we share with the animals. Just watch a mother cat protecting her kittens – or a mother tiger. But this defense of our helpless children is also a duty we owe to God. That is one reason the crime of abortion is so abominable. It is a violation of one of our most basic imperatives, of both nature and of God’s command.
We are the stewards of our children. They were created by God to know, love and serve Him. They are His children first and then our own.
Through grace, God builds on this physical impulse we have to throw ourselves between our children and danger. He extends our “all-out” defense into the spiritual realm. We teach, admonish, set examples and try to create a home environment that leads young souls to God.
We are vigilant. We watch out for spiritual danger and we fight. Television? Out it goes. Public education? Not good enough. Dangerous and poisonous. Our neighborhood? Look around, listen to the neighbors. Maybe we should move to a rural area, to a Catholic community. We keep watch over books, magazines, movies, and companions. We watch ourselves, listening to what we say lest out of our hearts and habits we bring evil to our children.
And we pray. Prayer grows over the years as our children’s environment expands. We learn slowly and painfully that we cannot remake the world in order not to scandalise these growing Christians. Our children outgrow the house, the yard, and the neighborhood. What are we to do?
We know we cannot remove the filthy magazines from the stores, cannot dress the lascivious young ladies who parade in front of our adolescent sons. We cannot silence the babbling, cursing, raving, blaspheming world. Nor can we enter into the souls of our children and wrestle with the devils who tempt and torment them especially during these teenage years.
No, this is not in our power. Once upon a time, we brought peace and happiness by changing a diaper or reading a bedtime story. We forget, though, that even then the peace and safety we took for granted was due entirely to God’s generosity, to His providence. He was patient with us, seldom sending very great trials – though they seemed large enough at the time! He allowed us to grow slowly, along with our children.
But now we see our enemies face to face. We know them. The world, the flesh and the devil are out to destroy our children.
What will you do to protect them?
©Copyright 2013 Colleen Drippe & Little Flowers Family Press All Rights Reserved
Colleen Drippe is a mother, grandmother and Award winning author. She is author of The Little Blue House Series and Mystery at Miners’ Creek all available from Little Flowers Family Press.
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