I remember being 16 years old and begging my dad to let me drive two hours away to a party on a college campus with a guy friend that I went to high school with. It was the beginning of my junior year.
Guess what my dad said?
No way.
Period.
I stood in the living room and loudly debated my case with tears streaming down my face. Then I seethed in my bedroom for the rest of the weekend, refusing to talk to my father.
I thought he was the meanest dad in the whole town.
My father just ignored my nastiness and let me sit in my room. He knew I’d get hungry or need to use the phone (ahhh the days before cellphones). Looking back now, as a parent, I can see how strong he had to have been to handle my emotions.
I couldn’t understand at that age that my dad could see things that I couldn’t. There was a whole lot of the world that he had been exposed to that I hadn’t. He was trying to protect me — from my own bad decisions and the bad decisions of other people I might encounter.
This week’s memory verse reminds me that there is still Someone who is trying to protect me. Someone who can still see things I can’t see.
“All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1Corinthians 13:12b NLT) 
Someday you and I will get to see the big picture. We’ll get an eternal perspective that comes with an understanding that we can’t grasp this side of Heaven. I like to imagine that we’ll even get to look back on the disappointments of our lives with new eyes; eyes that can see how the pain we endured was actually paired with a great love and protection from our Father.
Until then, what do we do?
Trust.
Trust that He has a reason. And a plan. And that it’s way better than our plan.
And when we do get upset, I hope instead of stomping off to our rooms and refusing to talk anymore, we will use that time to draw closer to God.
If my dad could handle my nasty teenage emotions, I’m certain God can too.
