Daily Devotion:

Title: Picture This

Date: February 25, 2013

Dad looked at his prom picture showing a longhaired teen dressed in a salmon colored shirt with ruffles and a large clip-on bow tie. The tuxedo was a dark-hued salmon with wide velvet lapels and a pair of satin, ribbon-trimmed side seam bell-bottoms with the front creases sewed in place. He wore shiny black plastic, pointy-toe dress shoes. His long hair back then had irritated his crew cut father.

It was prom month, and Dad was having trouble with his high school junior. Dad found the picture so he could see himself as he was at seventeen. Seeing himself in that seventies tuxedo reminded him of whom he was back then. 

He studied this picture of himself on the advice of a teacher. She had said, “You might better understand who your son is now, if you remember who you were when you were his age. Find a picture of yourself from back then and think about what you were thinking, what your concerns were, and who you were striving to become. It might help the both of you.” And it did.

In the same way that kids cannot believe their parents were ever young, parents often forget what it was like to be young.

Let’s Pray:  Dear God, remind parents of their own worries when they were young. Let teenagers and parents have ears to hear one another, to listen to one another, and speak with civil words to open minds, ask questions, hear the answers, and know that love overcomes.  Amen.

Here’s a Thought: You, yes – you, were young once. And you – yes, you, will be old.

Sources: 

Ephesians 6:2 “Honor your mother and father…”

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children in anger…”