"What's so bad about being a teen-ager today?" our youngsters (one ten, one eleven years old) asked at the dinner table several years ago. At first I wondered what brought that on. Then I remembered they'd heard the same three conversations about teen-agers that I'd heard that day.

The first was in my husband's office, where a new father had announced his daughter's birth. "Just think," a co-worker teased, "in no time she'll be a teen-ager—and dating!" "Don't even mention it!" was his half-teasing, half-serious report.

Then there was the conversation near us on the subway. Eyeing a group of teen-agers, one elderly lady shook her head and said to her companion, "I'm glad I raised mine when I did! It was bad enough then. Can you imagine what it would be like in today's society?"

And no sooner had we walked into the house than a neighbor stopped in. "If I can just get my children through their teens, I think I'll make it," she lamented.

No wonder our almost teen-agers were bothered! All three conversations had made teen-agerhood sound ominous, to say the least.

"Don't worry," I assured them. "We've enjoyed you at every stage of your growth, and your teen years will be no exception, I'm sure. The same Love that has prepared the way for you this far—as babies, toddlers, kindergartners (and for us as parents too)—certainly won't stop when you become teen-agers."

That seemed to be what was needed right then. But as I thought about it, I realized the day's events were no coincidence. They were alerting me to my privilege and duty as a parent and a Christian Scientist to pray daily for my own family specifically, and for the world generally.

Later the same evening, I considered various popular beliefs about teen-agers that try to impress us all. Some see adolescence as a veritable minefield of liabilities; a time when one is liable to eruptions (emotional and facial), to preoccupation or dissatisfaction with oneself, to vulnerability to evil's allurement, to insecurity, to instability, and to the three R's—restlessness, rebellion, resistance.

Then as I prayed about this impressive composite of mortal beliefs, or misconceptions about God's man, I began to replace it in my own thinking with the spiritual perspective, the view of man's spiritual nature I had been gaining in my study of Christian Science. Since God, Love, creates and maintains His idea, man, He can't and doesn't subject man to dangers or difficulties. And since God is All, He knows nothing unlike His own lovingkindness. Man, God's reflection and the recipient of His goodness, is always perfect—as God created him—never moving toward or away from perfection. This is the true status of man; and as we understand more of man's real nature we are less and less deceived by the mortal belief about human development.

Reasoning along these lines enabled me to view adolescence as an opportunity to grow in expressing those childlike qualities that Christ Jesus taught are so essential—purity, trust, innocence, for example—not a time to give them up. The world so needs the true maturity they bring! As I thought about the needs of teen-agers, I could see that adolescence was as good a time as any to be learning that security, stability, and peacefulness are within, not "out there"—an occasion to get to know them as one's very own substance. This understanding brings not merely a gain of personal freedom but the knowledge that we are all that God is causing us to be. Putting the truth into practice makes us honest, honorable, happy.

As I prayed, my heart went out to teen-agers and parents alike who face the challenges of a stereotyped perception of teenage behavior (or of parental response). I asked myself, "What do I know of God that will help free mankind from these misconceptions about His children?"

The answer came as a Bible verse that speaks of God's "new covenant" with His people: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." ^{Jer. 31:31, 33.} How precious and faithful is His love to give us His law, which, obeyed, ensures and protects our genuine happiness and success! God's promise that His law will be found at the core of our being assures us also that our obedience to the Ten Commandments ^{See Ex. 20:3-17 .} is natural and normal. They're not impossible demands imposed on us against our nature. They're for us, not against us; they don't spoil our fun, but ensure it. So invariable and irresistible is God's love that He will never stop giving us all we need in order to know that we are His image. Knowing this, we are satisfied.

A covenant is a pact or two-way promise. It takes two sides to uphold it. God's promise is twofold; it not only assures us that He is doing His part (being our God), but it also ensures that we are able to do ours (be His people) because His law is in our hearts, feeding us constantly with the courage, strength, diligence, joy, understanding, we need.

A couple of years later, when our own children were teenagers, alarm was mounting for many parents over teen-age music, attire, and behavior—as well as over increasing drug use and drinking. It was at this time that I came across two Bible verses that struck me as a perfect "parents' prayer." The verses are "Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace." ^{Ps. 144:11, 12.}

"Rid me," I thought, not "rid my kids." This insight silenced any fear I might have had by alerting me to see that evil always claims to be either so alarming or so alluring that we can't help being its victim. I knew I couldn't expect the children not to be allured by evil's enticements if I was alarmed by its power to entice. And, I reasoned, to fear that the pressures of today's society are too great for teen-agers (or anybody else for that matter) would be to doubt God's omnipotence.

"Plants grown up in their youth" reassured me that children too have the strength and stability to withstand evil. These are innate qualities, God-given, that don't come from years. And "corner stones, polished" reminded me of the preciousness and indestructibility of our children's true substance: the integrity, purity, intelligence, wisdom, beauty,—all the qualities they reflect from their Father-Mother God.

Mrs. Eddy's comment "It is the love of God, and not the fear of evil, that is the incentive in Science" ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 279.} was especially helpful to me as I prayed. It encouraged me to keep my thought focused on every evidence of good, or godliness, in our teenagers (and others). I appreciated each sign of their thoughtfulness, accomplishments, caring about others—friends and strangers—of their interest in home, school, church, and the world, and of the enthusiasm and joy they brought to each. And I let them know I did.

Their teen years were fun for us all, and not a burden. For me, my husband, and the youngsters the time was so full of wholesome activities, interests, and friends, it seemed to fly by. In fact, it was just the other day that I realized we don't have any teen-agers anymore. Did I sigh a sigh of relief? Not at all. But I did stop to thank God for His constant love for all His children and every proof of it.