A prayer for pre-teen parents, written by Meg Bueker, read by Leah Martin. I fumed about my older daughter's lack of timeliness as I thrust the car door open and lunged in.

Her little sister sat alone in the back seat and worried tears streamed down her face.

Stunned from watching her best friend run out of her sight,

her seven-year-old voice was as panicked as her eyes were.

I don't know where she went.

The engine hummed and the door hung wide open as I tore around the

yard. We called out her name and searched the hiding places. Flashes of missing kids

paraded through my mind as I ran along the edge of our

property.

Stopped cold, I reached into my pocket to execute every parent's worst nightmare.

My daughter is missing, I managed to verbalize as I ached in prayer for God to protect her.

How had we gotten here? That morning I allowed the one thing that my daughter

struggled with to snap my patience and leverage a war on her preteen emotional state.

As she explained herself to the three policemen parked at the end of our driveway that day,

a guilt that I had failed her washed over me.

Fathers don't exasperate your children by coming down hard on them.

Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the master.

Ephesion 64.

The original Greek word Parro-Gizo means to rouse to wrath to provoke, exasperate, anger anger Strong's 3949

Exasperate means to excite the anger of Miriam Webster

blocking our past of Miriam Webster.

Blocking our past experiences causes us to lack empathy for what our children are going through. In our human impatience, we become behavioral focused.

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