Labor and Delivery

Parenting wayward teens can feel much like a long hard labor and delivery.  Things are out of your control. Fear haunts you, panic grips you by the throat.  You want to quit or run away but there is no escaping - there is no way out but through...  This is your own flesh and blood.  No one but God knows when it's going to end or how it will turn out.  The pain comes in incredible waves and you can only hang on and cry out to God.  You long for birth, to witness the first breath of new life.  But as in the first laboring for this child, God IS in control - He is not surprised by any detail of it and He is completely and intensely present. We will risk our very lives and give in the most intense and intimate ways, being humbled and laid low, but if we believe we will experience the salvation of God and see and know Him in new ways.