My Mommy Told Me So

We hear a lot about skin cancer these days, and that most of the damage actually occurs when we're young.  Melanoma runs in my family.  Although my daughters are old enough to know how important sunscreen is and the ramifications of not using it, my 14 year old is, well, 14.  She’s my social butterfly and if she’s having a good time, which is pretty much always, she tends to forget things.  This weekend was one such occasion.

Knowing she was going to be swimming at a friend’s Saturday, I texted her Friday night, little sunshine emoticons and all, and reminded her to wear sunscreen.  She sent back, in all caps, “OKAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY.” 

She came home yesterday with burns on her shoulders and face.  Mama was not happy, and I told her so.

“I texted you! You said ‘OKAAAAAAY’!”

“I know, I just didn’t think we were gonna be out there that long!”

This is not our first rodeo with the sun. It happens every year at camp. And did I mention melanoma runs in my family? I repeat, mama ain’t happy.

Later that night I told her I was very concerned about her going to camp in less than 10 days and not taking care of herself. 

“Mom, I know.  I just prayed and asked God for wisdom so I will remember never to let this happen again.”

Did my teenager just say she prayed for wisdom?  Not just rescue from the pain and discomfort of her circumstances. But wisdom.  I’m a proud parent every day.  But every once in a while, God gives me a little bonus oomph. And my fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants free spirit girl telling me she didn’t just pray, “Oh God please don’t let me get skin cancer!” but that she asked Him for wisdom to learn from this and make better choices in the future was quite an oomph.

 Why would she do that?

Because I told her to. 

Statistics will tell us that our years of influence with our children are short.  They may live in our houses for 17 or 18 years, but they only hang on our every word for a little over half of that time.  That means when my kids were 5, I could tell them the sky was purple and they would’ve believed me, even if everyone else around them was saying it was blue.  But when they hit 11 or 12, they decide that mom and dad might not know everything.  And not only that, but won’t it be fun to tell them so.

I've been teaching my babies to talk to God since before they could talk to me. Yesterday I saw the years of my spiritual influence at work.  Apparently they believed me when I said God loves you, He listens to you, and He has every solution you're ever going to need. 

I realized in that moment that this child has been living with an amazing confidence in prayer for quite a while, and I’m embarrassed to say I just missed it.  I remembered all the mornings that she has come to me and told me she went to bed with a bad headache or stomach ache. When I asked, “Honey why didn’t you come get me?” Her response was, “I prayed and it went away.”

And all I was gonna do was give her a Tums or some Advil. I guess she told me.