{"id":2725,"date":"2012-06-14T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=2725"},"modified":"2012-06-14T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T13:00:50","slug":"a-stranger-in-a-strange-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html","title":{"rendered":"A stranger in a strange land"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It’s been too long. \u00a0I’ve not had a preteen\/teenager living in my home for many years. \u00a0Our first child was a boy and his transition from child to pre-adult was quick and violent. \u00a0My perfect child exploded in so many ways that I was left reeling in shock, terror and despair. \u00a0Later, I learned–but didn’t realize at the time–that an explosion is the only way to venture into the unknown and horrifying land called Adulthood.<\/p>\n

Our second explosion came in the form of a daughter. \u00a0She was different. \u00a0She exploded slowly with fireworks rather than an atom bomb. \u00a0However, a continual burst of cherry bombs and fire crackers is equally unnerving after six months or so.<\/p>\n

I have to admit the third child exploded in so many different ways that it was almost a relief. \u00a0Marked by a passion for Christ and missions, she erupted all over the world (literally) with trips and adventures that took her from Europe to Asia.<\/p>\n

But my last venture into this explosive mine field was more than 20 years ago. \u00a0My skills in dodging and weaving have not been sharpened in so many years, that I’m out of practice and I’ve completely lost my edge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This week I’ve been staying with an exceptionally gifted and intelligent young woman whose parents are out of town. \u00a0Her manners have been honed by the protective virtues of parents with one child who deeply desired that she have five siblings. \u00a0With the only child, there is the tricky jig of monitoring every movement while desiring to show parental love. \u00a0Because none of us are perfect, this results in amazingly healthy ways of showing our love spotted with some unhealthy ways, as well.<\/p>\n

This young woman thrives on debate. \u00a0I believe she came out of the womb thinking of ways to debate the weather, books, toads, God and the universal secrets of life. \u00a0Carefully, she uncovers your views by asking a miriad of questions; and then before you can know what slammed you, she takes the opposite side and destroys\u00a0your position. \u00a0For a person like me who loves The Debate, it has been an exciting and exhilirating couple of days.<\/p>\n

But I must confess that I’m lost most of the time we are together. \u00a0One moment, as comrades, we are battling the unphathanable depths of literature and drama. \u00a0Then, within moments, we’ve been thrown into a battle of wits between the two of us. \u00a0Everything in me says, “Don’t argue with her.” \u00a0I know this is wisdom. \u00a0It is \u00a0the best and only path. Nevertheless, I seem powerless to resist the pull of the surging waves that hit me. \u00a0Then once caught in the undertow, I struggle to swim along the shore to be able to get my feet back onto the ground.<\/p>\n

In short, I’m a stranger in a strange land. \u00a0Yet, rather than depressing or disappointing me, the opposite effect emerges. \u00a0Being with a young, gifted child who is on the trembling edge of adulthood has been excilerating and wonderfully pleasant for me. \u00a0As she slammed the door, this morning yelling, “I don’t have time for all this. \u00a0I have to go,” \u00a0Closing the door, I silently prayed for her and I knew that her time with me has been much more depressing than excilerating. \u00a0But that is strange land in which she now lives and she will live here for almost a decade. \u00a0Nothing can make it better, except a deep relationship with the Lord, buckets of love and time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been too long. \u00a0I’ve not had a preteen\/teenager living in my home for many years. \u00a0Our first child was a boy and his transition from child to pre-adult was quick and violent. \u00a0My perfect child exploded in so many ways that I was left reeling in shock, terror and despair. \u00a0Later, I learned–but didn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,49,147,263,4],"tags":[21,688,409,699,715,701,709,408,6,710,407],"class_list":["post-2725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-leadership","category-redemption","category-simple-truths","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-drama-of-teenagers","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-leadership","tag-preteen","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-stress","tag-teenager"],"yoast_head":"\nA stranger in a strange land - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A stranger in a strange land - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s been too long. \u00a0I’ve not had a preteen\/teenager living in my home for many years. \u00a0Our first child was a boy and his transition from child to pre-adult was quick and violent. \u00a0My perfect child exploded in so many ways that I was left reeling in shock, terror and despair. \u00a0Later, I learned–but didn’t…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-14T13:00:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-14T13:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/06\/Nuclear-explosion-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A stranger in a strange land - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A stranger in a strange land - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"It’s been too long. \u00a0I’ve not had a preteen\/teenager living in my home for many years. \u00a0Our first child was a boy and his transition from child to pre-adult was quick and violent. \u00a0My perfect child exploded in so many ways that I was left reeling in shock, terror and despair. \u00a0Later, I learned–but didn’t…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2012-06-14T13:00:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-06-14T13:00:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/06\/Nuclear-explosion-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html","name":"A stranger in a strange land - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/06\/Nuclear-explosion-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2012-06-14T13:00:03+00:00","dateModified":"2012-06-14T13:00:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/06\/Nuclear-explosion-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/06\/Nuclear-explosion-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/06\/a-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A stranger in a strange land"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions\/2739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}