For the Girls

After writing this I went to log out of Facebook and saw an invite from a dear friend who lost her 14 year old daughter to suicide. Join us this Friday, Nov. 13 - To Write Love On Her Arm day...

Where have we gone wrong?
Fourteen year old beauties ending their lives,
cutting themselves,
thinking they are worthless and ugly,
and believing living in a fantasy world of vampires is better then reality.

I know my own body image only helps to compound the problem. How do I reach them Father? Watching me daughter's facebook breaks my heart - yet I don't want to make a move that will lay more between us. I have accepted her honesty about where she is, now how do I lead her out.
People say that teens are like this and to just relax and let them be who they are ... but thats not true. Suicide, promiscuity, drug abuse, self abuse ... these aren't normal traits of an individual finding their identity. They are signs of hurt, pain, rejection - real or not - its real enough to them.

On my knees I throw myself

In tears I cry out in desperation

You love them more then I

I know that much is true

Speak to me through Your Spirit

Use me in their life

Hold them, love them, and open their eyes.

O Lord You have searched them and know them.

You know when they sit and when they rise.

You understand their thoughts afar off.

You sift and search their paths and their lying down,

and are acquainted with all their ways.

There is not a word on their tongue

- but behold Lord, You know it altogether.

You have shut them in,

before and behind

and have laid Your hand on them.

Your infinite knowledge is too wonderful for them,

it is high about them and they cannot reach it.

Where could they go from Your presence?

Where could they flee from Your Presence?

If they ascend to heaven You are there.

If they make their bed in Hell, behold, You are there.

If they take wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there will Your hand lead them

and Your right hand hold them.

If they say "Surely the darkness will cover me and night will be the only light about me,"

Even the darkness hides nothing from You,

but the night shines as the day and

the darkness and light are both the same to You.

For You did form their inward parts;

You did knit them together in their mother's womb.

They will give You praise with me

for we are fearfully and wonderfully made

and for the awful wonder of our births!

Wonderful are Your works,

that that their soul will know right well.

Their frame was not hid from You

when they were being formed in secret

and intricately and curiously wrought

as if embroidered with various colors

in the depths of the earth

- a region of darkenss and mystery.

Your eyes saw their unformed substance

and in Your book all the days of their lives were written

before ever they took shape,

when as yet there were none of them.

How precious are Your thoughts to them O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If we could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When we awoke, could we count to the end, we would still be with You.

...Search us thoroughly O God, and know our hearts!
Try us and know our thoughts!
And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in us,
and lead us in the way everlasting.

If we confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord,
And believe in our hearts the God raised Him from the dead,
we will be saved.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When your mother or father forsake you
the Lord will take you in!

God is not mocked,
what you sow you reap.