The joys and pains of high school...

I had to ask my husband if there was a statute of limitations on high school criminal activity...he suggested that perhaps one could get herself in trouble for such things...so um, I won' tell any of my stories...let's tell one that I heard of!
I knew a girl in high school who made a fortune selling un-documented cigarettes. She worked in a mom and pop type of supermarket. She just took cartons home with her. She would go to school and keep an inventory of the most popular brands~I seem to remember, I mean, I heard she kept, a lot of Parliaments and Marlborough Lights~stack them in her locker. She would sell them for $1.00 a pack. She had no over head so she could keep the price low. That same girl went to Hawaii on the funds she "earned"...now that is the entrepreneurial spirit of a future commodities trader!

So why the trip down memory lane? I have been going through some boxes in my closet.
In one of the boxes is my high school journal, or at least it was. That thing needs to be destroyed!

I went to a small, all girl Catholic academy in Weschester. The academic standards were high...I didn't know that at the time. I thought I was just plain stupid, not realizing that if I was, I would not have been there. But that is, like always, another story for another day...and those of us who attended, had parent's who sacrificed to send us there.
...not so sure the sacrifice was worth it. Now don't get me wrong, having grown up in Yonkers, sending your kids to a private school was pretty much the norm, especially on our side of the city.
But there was an assumption that the nuns would keep us in line. After all, it had been the truth for our parent's generation so it would be the truth for us as well...um, right.
No need to go through all of my high school shenanigans...but some of them were just beyond what my parent's could have imagined. The definition of "Good girl/Bad girl" changed somewhere and by the '80's, for the most part, our folks had no idea how bad the good girls could be.
...and now I am the mother of teenage girls. I had more fear of putting my oldest in public school then I can list here. I had even begun homeschooling my oldest at the beginning of her freshman year with the understanding that she could go to a small Christian school come January...
Things didn't go the way I wanted them to. I found myself faced with an angry teenager who was bored and lonely. Bad combination.
When the Lord seemed to close the door on homeschooling, and I had no doubts about it, we registered the kids for school...public school. This is not to say I had no doubts about school, but I had no doubt about God's faithfulness and He confirmed it over and over again that this was the path and we were to walk in it.
I have found myself in prayer daily over these kids of mine. I pray they are blessed in school, I pray they are a blessing to others, I pray that prayer of protection and the angels popping feathers and all that good stuff...
I am also very aware that I have let them out of my bubble and some days I hate it. I want to homeschool and teach them myself...
Instead, I get to be brave.
Each day my kids are salt and light in a darn dark place. My high schooler comes home each day to me and she has often shared about this challenge and that. There is the atheist who challenges her everyday at the lunch table...she has to live out the call to always be ready for a reason for why she believes what she believes. All those verses memorized over just so many years have come in way handy at lunch!
She has challenged (respectfully) her history teacher on our welfare society and her biology teacher on "the bible not being true"...she asked if he could share documentation on that or if it was just his opinion...he-he! In turn she was allowed to do a project on a young earth theory.
She may not convert anyone to her way of thinking but she sure has made several people think about why they believe what they believe.
She has even told a friend or two to put a little bit more clothes on!
Am I thrilled that she actually knows who Lady Gaga is? No more so then our folks were about Madonna. And I do know that things are way worse now then they were when we were kids.

What I am thrilled with is that she has been sharpened. She knows who understands her when she talks. She knows that she often walks those halls alone...she also knows that she is never really alone because the Holy Spirit resides in her. She is way more grounded then I was at that point in my life.
She wants to go to bible college and plans to do missions work. One of her best friends wants the same. They both want to go to India to serve...they have both had it confirmed on thier hearts more then once. Her friend lives in Florida...but thank you Facebook for reuniting two former pre-schoolers!
If you get to homeschool...I envy you the joys and I thank God we still live in a nation that allows for it. I still think it is the best choice. But for now, it is also the one the Lord said no to for us.
If you get to send your kids to a small Christian school...I envy that too. Just watch it. Know that the walls of the school do not mean they are growing in the Lord.
I am proud of my girl and even more so grateful to God for calling me to pray.
Now off to burn that journal and look over some of my pictures from Hawaii!


"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." ~ Psalm 19:14

Just read this and had to add it on. Thank God He allows us to grow up!