I am a mother of teens; I have two teenage daughters. It is hard being a mother of teens: hard, but good. There are difficulties: many difficulties, even heart-numbing difficulties: these are the thorns. Then there are delights, and beauties, and wonderful growth to observe: these are the roses. If I want to work in the garden alongside my teens, then I will encounter both the thorns and the roses: both the difficult and the delightful.

These teens, these difficult and growing individuals, are a wonderful mystery. They are individuals, they are their own persons, yet even to themselves they are a mystery. They are struggling to find out who they are and where they fit into life and society.

They are transitioning. They are transitioning in their thinking from dependence to independence; from being catechized to assessing things for themselves; from living in the shadow and safety of their familial circles to moving into the wide and unfamiliar territory of the adult world at large. They find themselves on a conveyor belt of transition that can only move forward; and this can be both exciting and scary at times.

These young adults, these teens, these unique individuals are discovering themselves as God has made them. They have only known themselves as children, and now they find they are maturing and becoming young adults: they have never known themselves as young adults; it is uncharted territory for them and yet they have to personally traverse this territory. They are discovering that life is more than a breathing body. God’s gift of life is encompassing of the whole of who they are, why they are, where they are going; God’s gift to them encompasses their individual personhood. They are individuals waking up…and this waking up is a gift of God. It’s a wonderful process and it’s supposed to happen: but it’s hard.

It’s hard for the teen. It’s hard for the parent.

But it’s not hard for God. And yes, God is in the process.