A few summers ago, my family and I were hiking in the Appalachian mountains.  It was fun, beautiful, serene even… except for my one daughter who really didn’t want to be there and somehow was the only one to acquire legit stinging nettle wounds that only reinforced her anti-everything adolescent mindset of the afternoon.  After stopping for a bite to eat and catching our breathe from a steep, off trail, climb my husband challenged us to, we got underway again.

With dogs running zig zag patte...

Parenting is hard.  When you have to say no to something they really want or yes to something they are dreading.  When natural and corrective consequences come and all you want to do is hug them and take it for them, but you know they will not build the strength life demands without these trials.  When their brain is under construction, and you seem to be speaking two different languages, when everything has to be an argument or when isolation and silence is deafening.

No parent I have ever ...

There is no denying that when you are raising, or in any way leading, teens and preteens that there are some head scratching, jaw dropping, "what in the world" moments where they will do and say things that test your love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control in BIG ways.

What do we do? Blind rage fit? Laugh it off? Hide all evidence? Enable their unhealthy choices for fear of not being their "friend”, rocking the artificial facade of peace or o...