A few months ago, I had 4 teenagers in my house. The oldest turned 20 in December, leaving 3. Life can often be rough for teens. Adjusting to grown-up like schedules can be difficult. Briana is working and going to college and managing things well, but Andrea struggles. Each week, she works 20 hours, plays tennis almost that many hours and is taking college classes, while still a junior in High School. Tennis season has started and has added to her schedule. Joanna is doing well as a freshman. Krista is moving at her own pace in 7th grade.
Kids hate it, but we try to help them learn from life's lessons. This weekend, Andrea was the student. Her team was playing in a tournament in Georgia. Typically, there isn't much competition so she really didn't want to play. Friday night her first match was very lifeless. She won easily, but played sloppily because she really didn't want to be there. Saturday morning was a different story, the girl she played was very good, but cheated. She wasn't mentally prepared to play a difficult match, much less one that was less than ethical. She lost by a small margin. I won the battle with my tongue (somewhat). It was all I could do not the throttle the girl and her coach. It did help that they both out weighed me. I am grateful that I didn't loose my testimony. Her dad and I are hoping she realized that she was not prepared for that giant. While we are not competing, we still have giants of a different nature to fight. We too enter those battles unprepared. We are a little prideful in our thinking that it is an easy battle. Satan wants us to think that way, then he can have the victory. Don't underestimate your opponent.
I currently am training to run in the Gate River Run. It is challenging, in that part of the race is up the Hart Bridge. We don't have hills in our city, so this is the mountain at the end of the race.
I ran 7 miles last week and plan to run 8 tomorrow. The race is 9 so I hope I can survive. I don't plan to run down the bridge due to my difficulties with gravity.
Lord willing, our family will be on 3 different continents this summer. Andrea is planning to go to Africa. Briana wants to spend a few weeks in the Dominican Republic and we are planning a trip to Guatemala. I guess that is technically not 3 continents but you get the picture.
Life is moving very quickly and we are enjoying it to the fullest.
