See the best, and you will experience the best.

How can a parent possibly find peace of mind when their teenager is out with friends for the evening, and there are so many scary options that teens have to choose from?  How about starting with the thought that your child is deeply programmed to make life-giving choices and that they were born that way!

Take a moment to review a mental slideshow of your child’s life up to this point.  If you do this right you will have many moments come up that were incidences of potential harm to your child.  Perhaps they picked up a kitchen knife that you had laying on the counter while you were preparing a meal, and somehow they escaped receiving a nasty cut.  How about when they learned to ride a bike, and took a couple of spills yet walked away unharmed.  There may have been a moment in a crowded place, such as a visit to a zoo or a mall, when they seemed to have gotten lost but really didn’t.  Most parents have experienced these situations, and probably many more, too!   Somehow, in spite of close calls, your child is still in one piece.

Now think about the moments when your child was engaged in an activity which could have inflicted injury somehow, such as playing a sport, and no harm ever came to them.  There are probably so many moments in their life like that that you cannot even begin to recall them!

So what is it that keeps that child safe, even in the face of harm?  How did they manage to escape the countless opportunities to receive injury somehow, while participating in LIFE?  The answer is found in the children themselves and in their inborn desire to live a life filled with new experiences and joy.  Just think about how easily children laugh, and how excited they are to know the world around them.  We can easily believe that they are not born with a self-destructive goal because they wouldn’t make it past the age of two if they were.

This same desire for life and for exploration lives within them throughout their entire lives, including during their teenage years.  Since as parents you often have very little real control over your teen’s choices, this is a crucial time to trust that your child makes the ones that bring them life.  While this may be a difficult thought for a parent to embrace, it is the one thought that can help parents and teens get through a few challenging years with as little worry and concern as possible. Believe in the best, and you are likely to experience the best!