Raising Teens

My daughters and I did surprise my husband the night before his birthday. It didn't go exactly like we had planned, but it went well enough. He was very surprised and when the girls jumped out of the car and yelled SURPRISE, he was looking for whoever it was visiting us, lol. We're enjoying this car very much.

Now on to what's been on my mind lately. Raising children is not easy, and so many times I feel like I'm just floundering, especially now that we're raising a teen, with a younger daughter watching, and following, her example. And I just happen to be seen as Mrs. Mean Mom, and that's not an easy thing to be seen as. I guess you could say I've been in the Woe is Me state of mind lately, and having quite a pity party. I'm not quite sure that I actually was, but I do know the Lord gave me much encouragement this morning in that whatever it is I'm doing, I'm on the right track. I still feel like I'm failing in so many areas, but I did find myself encouraged this morning.

I searched online to see if I could find something that might help me in raising my daughters, and I came across a very good article on parenting teens on the NANC site with excellent articles. It was a most convicting article for me to read. Here is a link to the article, and just a portion of the article itself:

The Bible tells us how frequently God displayed His awesome power and majesty in the Old Testament. How He showed His love and concern for His people in His one-sided covenants, knowing that we would fall, but He would be true to His Word. He knew that we would frequently reject His counsel and then need to come back to Him and repent. We know,
understand and appreciate all this as long as it is about others, or even us -- just not
our children. Please, God, not our children. We have raised them better and they don’t
appreciate “how much we have done for them.”Beloved mom and dad, (I hate to tell
you this, but...) one sinner marries another sinner and they produce little sinners. I could go on. I could probably make you thoroughly depressed and anxious if I discussed all the counseling cases I have had with rebellious teens and their parents. The forces we are fighting against are
incredible. The evil that our teens are exposed to can literally overwhelm them. So much so that, by the time most parents come in to see me about their children, they are hopeless and reflect the countenance of the Proverb that says, “Hope deferred maketh a heart sick”
(Proverbs 13:12).

The highlighted part seemed to hit me the hardest, although the entire article was helpful, but convicting. Lately I've been dealing with a lot of disrespect from them, and even outright telling me no on some things. This morning I had a talk with them, (and they were bored to tears) and the talk was more like the highlighted part, a woe is Mom kind of talk.

I've been thinking about getting a couple of books by Paul Tripp, one is Age of Opportunity, and the other one is War of Words. Have any of you read those two books, and would you recommend them?

I tried to correct the paragraph that isn't lined right, but I couldn't fix it, but I'm leaving it that way.