Hope In "Clothing Battles" with Kids

Does your teen - give or take a few years - dress "odd" and in a  manner that annoys you?

Have you wished they would conform to your own desires in how they dress and groom? in  how they    eat?


The peer pressure - from our own "other parents peer group"- can be strong for our teens to look, dress, eat, etc a certain way.  We can feel judged or even  ostracized in certain circles if our teen grooms himself/herself  different from certain societal "norms".  In our own insecurities  do we sadly, put too much emphasis on this?  Do we look to other parents' approval of us more than  looking at God's approval of ourselves and our kids?

I wonder how the parents of John the Baptist felt.   Matthew 2:4  says he had clothing of camel's hair and a leather belt.  And that he ate locusts and wild honey for his diet.  He also lived and worked in the wilderness.  These seem to say that he was definitely "different"

He had a special mission!  Evidently his amazing parents did not get in the way of what God had called him to do or how he looked etc.  Seems they looked at his heart and not his outward appearance, just as God does.

I long to  do the same. Though my own children are now grown,  I want to  remember this for  other families  I know and the precious children they are raising.