We have been blessed with a number of books that adapt and share the prayers of the Puritans. The Valley of Vision is the most famous of these of course, and Piercing Heaven is another. I was glad to see that we will spoiled yet again, this time with Tim Chester’s Into His Presence which will be released shortly. Here’s a lovely sample prayer from it, drawn from Thomas Lyle.

Lord God, you and you alone should be the sole object of our trust.
May there be but one string to the bow of our faith: that is you, our Lord.
May we not rest in any thing other than you.
Forgive us when we trust in our heads, for our own understanding is an unsafe place to lean.
Forgive us when we trust in our hearts, for they are so deceitful and wicked.
Forgive us when we trust in our vigour, for our hands will soon hang down and faint.
Forgive us when we trust in any excellences, for the best of us in our best state is altogether vanity.
Forgive us when we trust in riches, for riches are fair-faced nothings, taking flight like birds.
Forgive us when we trust in human allies, for they prove not to be staffs but broken reeds.
But on this the arm of trust may safely lean: your almighty arm and power; and your infinite goodness, mercy, and bounty.

Many people cautioned me about the teenage years. Many people warned that the joys of parenting little ones would eventually give way to the grind of parenting bigger ones. They told me horror stories based on their own experiences, then assured me that I should prepare myself for all kinds of difficulties and all kinds of sorrows.
They were wrong. At least in our case, they were wrong. Parenting teens has not been without its challenges, of course, for there is nothing in this life that comes without challenges. Nothing worthwhile, at least. But it has been my experience that the teenage years have come with joys far beyond the joys of the little years. Parenting teens has been a pleasure and a privilege. It has been an honor and blessing. So for those who have been warned only of the trials to come, let me recount some of the joys.
Parenting teens has given me the joy of seeing my children become Christians. I know that many people can and do make legitimate professions of faith when they are tiny, but I also know that the teenage years are crucial, that a profession is proven when the child has been challenged by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and is capable of rebellion, of turning away. It was in the teenage years that I had the privilege of seeing all three of my children profess faith, get baptized, and be received as members of the church.
Parenting teens has given me the joy of seeing my children begin to make their own decisions—to make decisions that are significant and life-shaping, yet decisions that are wise and honoring to God. It is good to have children who are obedient and who will do the bidding of mom and dad, but it is better by far to have children who are wise and who do the bidding of God.
Parenting teens has given me the joy of seeing my children honor their parents. I expected young children to obey and we trained them to do so all the way, right away, and with a proper attitude. But I expected that as our children got older, obedience would give way to honor, that the compulsion to obey would give way to the desire to respect. And it has been a blessing to see that happen, to see our relationships change in just the ways God expects them to.
Parenting teens has given me the joy of seeing my children take church seriously. All of my children left home at 17 or 18 to attend college hundreds of miles away. This meant that each of them had to find a new church community. And each of them did. They all chose a different church, but they all chose a good church where the gospel is proclaimed and where they could deploy their gifts in service to others.
Parenting teens has given me the joy of becoming friends with my children. Over time I found common ground with each of them—similar interests, shared gifts, complementary passions. As the children grew into adults and started to become peers, friendship sprang up where there had been only the relationship between child and parent. Having raised these children, it is now a blessing to count them as friends.
Parenting teens has given me the joy of seeing children fall in love and get engaged and even get married. What a blessing it has been to see them begin to leave and to cleave. This has, of course, also given me the joy of adding new people to our family—new people to get to know and new people to come to love. As the family has grown, love has grown all the more.
Parenting teens has given me each of these joys and so many more besides.
I was often warned of the struggles of parenting teens but rarely told of the blessings. I was often assured that it would be a time of difficulty but rarely encouraged that it would be a time of pleasure. Yet the years have proven that the joys of parenting teens have far exceeded the sorrows and the blessings have far exceeded the troubles. In fact, it hasn’t even been close. And as these years draw to their close not too long from now, I know I will remember them with fondness. I will remember them as the best years yet, even while expecting even better years ahead.

Have you ever been poked in the eye? Or have you ever gotten a speck of dust in your eye and learned how it takes just the tiniest piece of grit to cause the severest amount of pain? The smallest particle of dirt has the ability to incapacitate the biggest and strongest of men when it lodges in his eyeball. The eye is fragile and precious and we rightly guard it from harm.

There are a number of places in Scripture where God refers to his people as “the apple of his eye”—a delightful phrase that has been translated and adopted by the English language. The apple of the eye is the dark circle, the pupil, the tenderest and most important part. It is the part we protect with the greatest of care.
In Deuteronomy 32 Israel is referred to in this way. “[God] encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” In Psalm 17 David is desperate for protection and asks God, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” The phrase appears again in Proverbs and in Lamentations, and these repeated uses demonstrate the love God has for his people. Just as we protect the pupil as a particularly weak and vulnerable part of the body, God protects his weak and vulnerable people. God’s people plead with him to protect them in the way they so earnestly protect their own eyes.
There is one further reference that comes in the closing chapters of the Old Testament. There Zechariah prophesies and proclaims, “For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye…” Here God is warning the nations that if they harm Israel they will effectively be harming God—they will be poking him in the eye. And just as any human being will swat away the finger that attempts to jab itself into the pupil, God will swat away the enemy that attempts to harm his chosen ones. God so identifies with Israel, he so loves them and cares for them, that they are like that most precious and tender part of his body.
We do not need to look hard or look far today to find people who mean to do damage to God’s people—no longer ethnic Israel, but the church God has called from all nations, tribes, and tongues. The laws of many countries, and increasingly those in the West, are turning against God’s people. Those who pass such laws and those who enforce them should be warned—they are reaching out a finger toward the eye of God. And even where the laws have not been militarized against God’s people, many individuals, many organizations, and many corporate policies have been. Here too people ought to know and consider—they are poking God in the eye.
But I think there is another application that ought to concern you and me. We need to know that when we turn on our fellow Christians, when we hurt or harm them, when we belittle or insult them, we are likewise poking God in the eye. When we exaggerate their faults or diminish their graces, we are reaching out a finger toward his pupil. When we treat them poorly instead of well, when we tear them down instead of build them up, when we curse them instead of bless them, we are like a piece of grit in the eye of God.
And we should not expect that God will stand idly by while we do damage to what he regards as most precious. We should not expect that God will sanction such violence or that he will long tolerate such sin. We should not expect that he will shrug his shoulders in apathy as a finger repeatedly gouges his eye.
God loves his people—the people he called and justified, the people he sanctified and glorified, the people who belong to him. He loves them and will protect them. So be warned. Be warned when you are tempted to mistreat them, be warned when you are tempted to do or say what would harm them—he will protect his very own people in the way you protect your very own pupil. For they, for we, are the apple of his eye.
Note: My understanding of the original Hebrew phrase is that it translates most naturally to something like “the dark part of the eye” and the “apple” is an especially evocative English translation.