Categories: uncategorized
Date: 30 May 2008 06:42:43
Last night I had another "parenting nightmare" which ended up in me having to get a member of our brilliant church out to help me deal with an "interesting situation". After the initial issue had been dealt with (to a fashion), the person who had helped me out stayed a while to chat. It was an interesting conversation where it became clear that many of the "issues" I have with Third Party relate to the values she has which I given her, values which I consider biblical values concerning things like: hospitality, justice, looking out for the poor and the oppressed and so forth.
Whilst I am worried about my daughter turning into a "smiley evangelical", because I look ,primarily, at the church faith she has Third Party she is proving that she has an awkward, biblical faith if you look at her whole life. It's the very things I hold dear that cause us to come into conflict as she tries to live them out, but in that teenage way which doesn't put barriers in the way of action. Hers is certainly not a boring faith.
Yet in with my "middle class" values and understanding of protecting oneself, particularly if you have a professional role putting faith into action doesn't work in the same way. As a grown up I understand why I have to work atleast vaugely to the guidelines but that's hard for Third Party to accept when she recognises we live in a society which is letting many of our more vunerable young people down. She becomes cynical when I argue the guidelines are there to protect, when she sees them as an excuse for not simply getting on and doing something.
I can't go into details on here about what has actually happened, suffice to say my daughter and a couple of her friends went on an unscheduled camping trip last night. Please pray for P & J, who Third Party simply wanted to help; that they will recieve and accept the help they need, from the correct services.