This morning our fourteen year old walked out of the bathroom all ready for school dressed in one of her new Christmas sweaters.  I literally had to do a double take.  Yes she is my offspring and I am looking through the lenses of a loving mother’s eyes, but had she been anyone else I would have thought the same thing.   “She is beautiful!”  I told her, “Michaela you look really pretty today.  You look pretty everyday, but especially today.”   Even her little sister complimented her hair. The next time I saw the girl she had gone and completely changed what she was wearing.  She now had an old flannel shirt with a Cami shirt underneath.  She now looked like the Brawny Paper Towel guy.  If she had a grizzly beard she would have been able to pass for a lumber jack.  She still looked pretty to me, but not near the stunning presentation that she previously had.  Of course I had to give her a hard time about when one is fourteen everyday is opposite day.  “My mother said I look pretty so that must mean I look like a complete troll!!!!!”

I had to laugh because I went through my “opposite” days too.  Whatever God and my parents said I had an incredible desire to push the limits and go the complete opposite direction.  Some days I could suppress that instinct and others I gave in and often suffered the consequences of doing things “my” way.  The older I get the more I want to be completely in line with God’s authority.

Clothes are not a big deal to this mother as long as they are appropriately modest and fall within the school’s dress code.  Personally I am much more relaxed in a pair of hiking boots and a flannel shirt in the winter and flip flops and a tank top in the summer.  So I get it.  Raising teen daughters is going to be a whole new parenting adventure.

Galatians 5:17 “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”