Culture Shock-Tween Years

Our oldest daughter turned 12 this week.  It has been increasingly noticeable that we have entered into new territory as parents- the "tween years".  Its a scary time for us actually, because we know of all the traps and snares that she will be tempted with in the years to come.  We desire for her to follow the Lord and stay close to Him and preserve her purity and innocence.  We were thrilled when some close friends of ours shared with us a study that they had used called "Passport to Purity".  We decided that we will use our childrens' 12th birthdays as the opportunity to address with them openly and honestly about some of the snares that are coming and make a covenant with them about working through it together.  So, this weekend, we took our daughter away for the weekend to begin what we hope will be open dialogue with her.

It was clear to us in the beginning of this trip that the enemy did NOT want us to go and address the topic of PURITY and we faced multiple trials and challenges just leaving.  Our vehicle is not in our name, but rather in BMDMI's name, so in order to leave, we had to have a special signed and seal permit.  We obtained that days ago and crossed the border into Nicaragua after being checked by multiple people only to be denied further entry because there was an error.  The permission had to have the license plate number on it and included the letter "n".  However, the letter on the plate is ñ...yes, that is an n with an accent mark.  Because that accent mark was missing, we were asked to leave the country.  We were deported from Nicaragua for an accent mark!  After several hours of finding a lawyer and communicating with our office, we were able to get a corrected copy and finally cross the border.  I will never in my life underestimate the power of the ñ in Spanish again! It was late at this point but we forged on.  An hour into the trip, we ran over a screwdriver in the road and had a flat tire (the 3rd one in two weeks!!!)  After multiple frustrations with the jack and missing parts and wrong size spare, we continued and arrived at our hotel at 3 a.m.

The next day we filled with some of the touristy sites including a tour of a cocoa farm and a tour of the islands in the lake, including monkey island, then we returned to the hotel room to work on our study.  For any parents out there that are wondering how to broach this topic with your children, we just want to say that we highly recommend this resource!  It covered so many pertinent topics that will most likely become a challenge in the years to come.  Yes, there were some awkward moments and some embarrassing questions, but we continued to share with her that it is our job to protect her and we love her enough to have these kinds of conversations so that she isn't learning about it from just anyone or from the media.  We wanted her to see a Biblical perspective!  Saturday evening we visited the active volcano in Masaya.  We finished our weekend today returning home to Honduras and signing a covenant with each other.

The culture shock into these years is real.  I find us answering questions that were certainly not present a year ago.  However, we enter these new places clinging to the One that holds us close and provides wisdom and guidance.  We are relying on others that have walked this road ahead of us and we are seeking out resources to guide us as parents.  We find ourselves praying for our children in new ways and recognizing more cautiously the many traps that await them.