This past weekend, I experienced a trend in the teen world that I can truly get behind. Our daughter attended her first formal high school dance. Walking alongside her through this experience was fun and refreshing. I LOVE the fact that she, as well as many others both male and female, attended this dance with a small group of her closest friends. They got ready together. They went out to dinner together. And they landed back at our house to spend the night and sleep late into the next morning.

When I was a teenager, this stuff didn't happen. As a girl, I was on the "will I or won't I be invited to the dance" end of this exchange. There might be a rare girl who would invite a guy, but most of us metaphorically or sometimes literally sat around and hoped our phone would ring. And for those students who were LGBTQ in my school, there was no way they would show up at a dance with a partner. I am glad this has shifted. I am glad that there is a deeper and wider invitation for ALL to come and enjoy the fun.

Sometimes older generations are quick to see the negatives and exclaim, "kids these days..." I am certainly guilty at times. But it was so much fun to go shopping together and then to see my beautiful girl when she tried on her freshly altered black dress. It took my breath away. I am glad that her ability to enjoy such a special night wasn't dependent on the invitation of someone else. She got to decide whether or not she wanted to participate. How about you? What do you see in today's teens that you find encouraging and refreshing and different from your own experience? There are quite a few things if we just take the time and attention to look for them.