The Wanderer in the Valley of Vision [Christian Poetry] (Full Manuscript)

Letter to my Teenage Son

I write to you my teenage son
Though I'm not yet twenty-one
I've barely left those teenaged years
Yet will write as if you were here

May God grant you His tender grace
For I used to be the same way
Striving with wisdom and rebellion
Trying to grow in this world's confusion

Many mock and ridicule the teenage years
Forgetting they once shed those bitter tears
I write to you that I may not forget
Those teenage years I now have left

I do not write this to create worth for myself
But for the truth He holds you above all else
Some of God's leaders were still young men
And it is in that time, the Flesh and Spirit
Especially contend

O teenage son, from God, of mine
I know and relate: Your ground is soft
Tares or wheat will come in time
And you will thrive on what you've wrought

I write these things though not father yet
I write this now that I may not forget
Of who I am now and in time you will be
Remembering God's grace and mercies

O teenage son, may God give me grace
To raise you up in His love and ways
Love requires even the hardest days
To drive me, not to self, but to humbly pray

I am a young man and write this now
With present wisdom to do little good
Yet God lifts up those who fall down
And gives grace to the humble
Guidance for fatherhood

I do not know in the years to come
Who I will be
But I pray to be more like God's Son
And less of me

In your time, my child, my son
Is when youth seek their mark and dreams
A time to determine who they'll become
Finding refuge in a solid identity

Your time is one of the fiercest and hottest
Where darkness is deepest and yet God's hope shines brightest
Where your ground is readied through the tests and strife
To determine your future and the whole of your life

The ground of youth is one of mind
That Satan eagerly wishes to put to sleep
To be unconcerned with God's call to fulfill
But rather give in and lose to your Flesh' will

My teenage son, I do not speak in despair
The promise is brightest when the trees are bare
Your life can become victory not vanity
Embrace the Truth that will set you free

I write that I may not forget, my young man
As the years, by His grace, come on
He has shown my need and I pray beforehand
For He showed me grace where I did wrong

As He was merciful to me
Through my rebellious years
May you seek Him better
Delivered from all your fears

Yet if you make the same mistakes and rebellion as I
May God remind this father of His testimonies in past time
And remember His grace and mysterious mercies
Did not run empty on this twisted one like me

I write this as a prayer to myself
And in love and hope for you
To testify of the grace I was dealt
These battles and toils
He will carry you through

If God will bless me
In living long enough to reach those years
Then I will praise Him and not shun with fears
For I will remember and confess the One
Who had mercy
Who delivered me
And drew me near

Though you may not seek Him
He can do the same for you
And I pray that it be His will
If I do not win your heart again and again
May the Heavenly Father redeem
Where this father will fail
And show you the same grace
That He showed to me

Young man, still am I
Yet soon it will be time
And may I grow and God bless
To have those years to guide you
In His righteousness

-Signed Not-Yet-Father (Age: 20)

A youth like you