Being a Teenager Can Be Dangerous

Over the past weekend, four teens in my area went for a joy ride in the middle of the night. The car ended up colliding into a tree at an estimated 90 mph and literally split in half. Three kids were killed, the only survivor a boy who used his seat belt. A tragic accident that will forever be graven in that young man's memory.

According to news reports the car was stolen (by the girls who came by in the car and invited the boys to go for a ride) According to the survivor, the driver had been drinking (and it's presumed the others were too). The boy also said that when he told the driver (one of the girls) to slow down, his buddy said something to the effect of "Lighten up. If we die, we die." And he did, along with the two girls. Chilling.

I remember back when I was 16 and how I thought I was invincible. I'd get behind the wheel of my dad's car and roar through my small town at speeds well above the limit. Why the police never observed my less-than-stellar driving and put a stop it it, I have no idea. But friends of my dad did see me zooming down Main Street at high speed and told him. I think getting stopped by the cops would have been a less painful experience LOL.

I may not have stolen the car I was driving, and I wasn't drinking beer. But the mindset I had at the time wasn't too much different than the kids who died in that awful crash. The survivor said he didn't think his friend really meant the words "If we die, we die," that he was only joking. Some joke.

Why do teenagers think nothing is ever going to happen to them? Today, not only do many drink and drive drunk, a lot are doing drugs. They start out thinking they'll only try it to see what it's like and become addicted so fast they don't know what hit them. They pop pills, snort cocaine, and smoke pot, among other things. And now there's a product on the market called Bath Salts. Believe me, the powder in those little containers has nothing to do with taking a bath. Many states have started to ban the sale of these so-called bath salts, but for many, it's too little too late. Some have already died from the effects of ingesting this powder with it's rather innocent-sounding name.

Is there any way to protect our teens from being teens save locking them in their rooms until they reach their twenties? I have no concrete, fool-proof answer, except one - PRAY.

Pray for the teens you know personally. Pray for the leaders of your church's youth groups. Pray for the parents of the teens you know. I wonder if everyone started praying in this vein, what would happen.

Are you willing to find out?

Book Review: The Renewal by Terri Kraus

I'm one of those HGTV junkies (House and Garden Channel), so when my friend Terri Kraus asked for influencers for her new book, The Renewal, the second book in her Restoration series, I raised my hand. As a professional interior designer, Terri knows her stuff and I was excited to read the story she crafted in such a setting as restoring older buildings to their prime.

Leslie Ruskin, a single mom looking for a new start, comes to Butler, Pennsylvania and purchases an old structure known as the Midlands Building. A place with good bones in need of some TLC. She sees it as a place to put down roots with her five-year-old daughter Ava.

At the same time, Jack Kenyon is looking to make a new start with his one-man construction business. He's got some skeletons in his closet he'd prefer keeping there and figures starting over in a new town he'll be able to do that. But God has other plans.

When Leslie hires Jack to help renovate one of the apartments in her new building, neither realizes how God will work on these two lonely souls, restoring them while they restore the building.

Terri tells the story in the manner of storytellers of old. With the turn of each page more facets are revealed and woven into the fabric of a whole through the intermingling of the townspeople both Leslie and Jack meet and how, as the story progresses, the issues that drive them are brought out. The spiritual arc also weaves itself into the story like a golden thread of hope, drawing both Jack and Leslie to a place where they are finally able to trust in God and in each other.

Along with the story, I found the setting of an old building in need of restoration a wonderful parallel to the lives in need of the same attention.

This is a great story to curl up with a cup of tea and spend an afternoon devouring. You can pick it up at Amazon or Christian Book Distributors.