“Happy birthday, Laura,” I heard everyone call! It was my sweet sixteenth birthday.

      My family and friends were gathered all around me. When it came time to open presents, Dad handed me a beautifully-wrapped gift.

“You’ll want a picture of her face when she opens this present,” I heard Mom say to someone with a camera. I opened the lid of the beautifully-wrapped box. There it was! Just what I had always wanted for my birthday, a sweet sixteen ring. It had seven tiny chips of rubies and diamonds set in gold.

“Thank you so much for the ring! I love it!” I said as I jumped up from the table and hugged Dad. “Your Mother will tell you what it symbolizes,” he said, obviously pleased that I liked it.

I ran over to Mom. “Thank you!” I said as I hugged her.

      “Here,” she said, as she pointed to the jewels, “this is what the rings means. The ruby chips represent you and your brothers. Two of the diamond chips represent your Dad and me, and the other represents Jesus, holding our family together…”

I am sure people thought we were a lovely family when we would go to church on Sunday. On the way home in the car, though, my parents would always get into a fight. I simply thought this was normal. Over time, I became numb to what was really happening.

We looked like a happy fam­ily every year when we went to Dad’s company picnic at King’s Dominion, a gigantic amusement park. I’ll never forget the day I didn’t want to go on the Rebel Yell. It was the biggest roller coast­er in the park, and Dad wanted to go on it. No one else would go with him, and I was the last to decide. As I heard the screams coming from the cars over­head, I made up my mind to be brave and go with him. That was one way I could show Dad how much I loved him.

I always started out having so much fun on those family outings. We would be having a great time; but as the day wore on, it always seemed, something happened to mar our precious time together. My parents would get into another argument, and we would end up leaving early. I did not understand it, but I accepted it as normal.

These past experiences reminded me of the box my sweet sixteen ring was in. My family always seemed to put on a beau­tiful front when we were in public.

It wasn’t until halfway through my fifteenth year that I realized what was really happening. “Laura, there is some news that you need to hear,” my pastor said as Dad, Mom, my oldest brother and I sat in his office. “Your parents are on the verge of divorce. However, they want to try to work it Out,” he said.

I was stunned. He asked me if I knew what was happening in the lives of my parents. I denied it at first, but then the tears came. I had been living in unreality for a long time. My parents were the perfect parents! We were the perfect family! Weren’t we? Deep down, I knew it wasn’t true. God knew it was time for me to face the fact that their marriage was in seri­ous trouble. That truth hurt very deeply.

Things got better for a while after everything came out in the open. A friend and I started applying Philippians 4:6-7 to my life. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” We started praying every day for my family. I stopped being so anxious about the situation, and at the same time I got help dealing with the hurt I was experiencing. Things seemed to get better.

A few weeks after my sixteenth birthday, the situation got worse; Dad decided to leave. I’ll never forget saying goodbye to my Father and watching his car drive away. Why weren’t we going with him? Why was Dad leaving us? We were a fami­ly! God had put us together for a purpose. Mom told me they needed some space. After being married for twenty years, there was a lot of hurt stored up. I fell into Mom’s arms, and we stood in the driveway and cried.

In the weeks ahead, I shed many tears. I did not want any more unreality. I had big holes in my heart, which only Jesus could mend. I became sensitive to everything anyone said to me. I felt tremendous stress, but my Heavenly Father was car­rying me. I could feel His presence inside me, helping me make it through each day.

I realized we were a very broken family. All I knew how to pray was, “Father, let Your will be done in the lives of my parents.” I had no idea whether down the road there would be a divorce, or whether everything would turn out all right.

This year I turned seven­teen. A couple of months before my birthday my parents got back together. They decided to give it another try. When times get rough, I glance down at the ring I received on my sixteenth birth­day, and I have hope. One jewel always stands out to me, and that is the middle diamond. (It repre­sents Jesus holding our family togeth­er.) It reminds me of the promise God wrote through St. Paul, and it is my hope and prayer for my family. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you (our family) will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) I know deep down that God loves me and each member of my family and He is working out His plan for our lives, whether or not my parents make it as a couple.

God’s grace is sufficient to heal our family. I still am pray­ing and trusting God. I am beginning to realize that every marriage and every family has problems to work through. God needs to be the center jewel, so that the marriage and family can stand. Each marriage and family is like a group of jewels that God has placed in a ring. Each jewel still needs the Lord to polish it, for we all are only human, each fighting battles of sin. Jesus came so that our lives may be polished, so that they can sparkle and shine for Him. But no matter how hard the problems, or how wonderful life may be, Jesus is always there, right by our side to strengthen, encourage and comfort us.

As the jewels in our family ring continue to be polished, I will rejoice, just as I did at my sixteenth birthday party, for He is faithful!

LAURA CLARK is seventeen years old, and is a senior at Walkersville Christian Family Schools, a home-schooling organization. She is Managing Editor of her school’s student newsletter. She hopes to go into communications when she is older.