A friend’s beautiful daughter is lying in a hospital bed in a coma tonight. Why? Well, she decided that drugs were the way to go. Her entire family and friends tried to do anything and everything they could to help her to give it up. Nothing worked and now all of them are suffering because they are about to lose her. Everyone is focusing on her preciousness. They are in various degrees of wondering why? Why her? What could we have done to have helped more? What could we have done differently? Did we do something wrong as parents, grandparents or friends?
Why is it that some people make such awful choices? What do we as parents, do to convince our children that they shouldn’t take chances with their minds or bodies? As my children grew up, they lost friends to suicide, drug overdoses and car accidents that occurred because someone was under the influence of something. I used to thank God for sparing me of the unbelievable pain that I witnessed as parents buried their children. As I attended funerals of youngsters who didn’t understand the meaning of life, I prayed that I would never have to experience such grief. I thanked God each time one of my children made a poor choice but lived through the experience.
We must not forget that when we were young, we also thought we were invincible. Nothing could hurt us. Bad things always happened to the other people but not to us! After all, we were young, safe, healthy and happy. We knew that we would live until we were very old. Nothing could take our lives. We were sure of all of those things. At least we were until we came to understand that the rules we thought held true were dreams and hopes and not facts.
Please parents don’t assume that your children will always make the correct decisions when peer pressure kicks in. In my opinion, it’s better to think of the possibility that your children aren’t perfect and that they just might make the very same mistakes that other children make. Just because they are our kids doesn’t mean that they won’t be in jeopardy if they make the wrong choice. Don’t point fingers at the kids who do wrong and get caught. Don’t assume that your children are perfect just because they are yours or because they escaped the law by the skin of their teeth. Teach them, talk to them and scare them by allowing them to see and experience what happens to the ones who made the wrong choice and didn’t make it.
