The other day we had a little snafu.  With six in our family, we’ve had a variety of car/driver combinations.  Now, with only one child left at home, we have three drivers, but just two vehicles.  Usually we check our schedules and figure out in advance how to make things work.  But this time we hadn’t.  My husband had been gone all day and had meetings all evening. I needed a vehicle.  Our son needed to get to work. When he took off with the car without my realizing it, I was stranded.  I had to call for help.

“In my distress I called upon the Lord;

to my God I cried for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears. (Psalm 18:6)

We have a little flip book with Bible verses and this verse from Psalm 18 has been up for several days.   It’s not all that familiar to me, but I love it!

I’m reminded of when our kids were little.  They cried, we came.  Oh, not for every little thing; parents can differentiate between cries.  But some cries mean that something is very wrong!  And we run!

When our kids were little, it was more obvious that they needed us.  Now that they’re teens… they still need us.  Do our teens know we still “have their back”?  Have we grown so weary of parenting that we don’t seem to care?

What a blessing to know that even though our kids have imperfect parents, they have a perfect God!  God will always hear their call.  He is always there for them.  Hopefully they have experienced unconditional love from us as best as we can humanly love.  This gives them a glimpse of God’s unconditional love.

When we fail as parents, or when we just aren’t all we want to be, God is there for us, too!  We can cry to Him for help.  He hears our call and gives us His divine attention.  He offers us forgiveness, saving us from our greatest enemies of sin and death, and He helps us to be the parents He wants us to be.  In His Word and in the Sacraments we see how God helps us in times of need.

We all need help sometimes.  When our teens need help, let’s be there for them.  And let’s direct them to the One Who cares for them and can help them better than we ever could—our almighty God!

We all three got to where we needed to be that night.  But it took a call for help to make it happen.  And that’s ok.  “The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. ”  (Psalm 145:18)