Short prayer for teenagers (and their parents)

Dear God
I haven't contacted you for a long time.
But to be honest, you haven't been around much either.
Maybe it's because, sorry, you don't even exist? Be that as it may, you seem kind of absent.
I respect that, but now I'm going to turn to you about something. From parent to parent, okay? I'm asking you to take a little care of our teenagers. God, help the frustrated, bored and destructive boys and girls tonight and tomorrow and next year.

«God, I ask you to take a little care of our teenagers.»

And cure them at some point, somehow, of their self-hatred, their insecurity and their disorientation. Take away their peculiar way of slamming doors and give them a sensible day-night rhythm and a few real friends who stand by them and like them for who they are and not for who they pretend to be. Protect them from being defined by their appearance, deafen them to the sayings of their peers and manipulate mirrors and scales where you can.

Release them from their exaggerated ambitions at school (or: finally give them some), tempt them a little, but above all instil in them a little respect for themselves and others, that would be good. And, oh yes, if there's any way of doing it, why don't you crash the internet? And, God, while we're talking, can I ask you for something? Take care of the parents of teenagers too. Help them to endure and get through it all.

«Deliver them from their exaggerated ambitions at school (or: finally give them some).»

Show them how to turn annoyance into calmness, worry into gentleness and harshness into clarity. Protect them from booking a one-way flight to Alaska or investing their pension fund money in LSD. Remind them that they were once where their children are now and that every labyrinth has an exit.
I honestly don't know how to do that, but you do.
Don't you?
Amen.

To the author:

Mikael Krogerus is an author and journalist. The Finn is the father of a daughter and a son, lives in Basel and writes regularly for the Swiss parenting magazine Fritz+Fränzi. If you would like to find out more about him, read our big interview with him on the subject of good communication - especially between parents and children, of course.