THE GOD WITHIN: A RITE OF PASSAGE WE FORGOT

There is a rite of passage we desperately need to restore.

Not a ceremony of becoming desirable to the world. A rite of passage into inner authority.

Around puberty, a girl’s body announces another stage of life. Hormonal changes reshape the brain before menstruation arrives, bringing powerful attraction, attachment, sexuality, fertility, and longing.

Who teaches her what to do with that power?

Who teaches her that desire is not an instruction?

Who teaches her that another person’s confidence, beauty, attention, status, age, or authority does not outrank the quiet warning inside her?

A young child appropriately relies upon an adult as external authority. Parents protect, teach, establish boundaries, and lend judgment until the child can develop her own.

But healthy parenting has an end point.

The goal is not to remain God to the child.

The goal is to introduce the child to God within.

I use God as an internal language: the all-loving, all-knowing guidance system within—the quiet intelligence that says yes, no, wait, leave, listen, stop.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

It is the inner kingdom you must learn to inhabit.

Predators understand what happens when that kingdom is weak.

They can arrive as a lantern dangling in the darkness.

You’re beautiful.

You’re so wise for your age.

I’ve never connected with anyone like this.

Don’t you trust me?

Come on. Why are you being difficult?

If flattery does not work, shame, criticism, guilt, pressure, urgency, or fear may follow.

The message is always the same:

Ignore the alarm bell.

Listen to me instead.

That is grooming.

And it is not limited to children. Predators can seek people whose boundaries, confidence, or internal authority have been weakened. Trauma can teach someone to privilege external approval over internal signals. A person can become conditioned to ask, “What do you want me to be?” instead of, “What do I know?”

They need to be taught that predators exploit openings in agency.

This is why puberty deserves a deliberate rite of passage.

Sit with your child. Teach her to pause. Breathe. Notice contraction, dread, confusion, excitement, pressure. Ask: Is this safe? Do I actually want this? Am I choosing, or am I being pushed?

And teach the same to boys.

Your flesh is powerful, but it is not your sovereign.

Sexuality is not the enemy. Manipulated sexuality is.

Pure sexuality requires agency, honesty, consent, patience, responsibility, and truth. It is not something to be harvested by whoever flatters the flesh fastest.

A predator says, Now.

A healthy relationship can tolerate, “I need time.”

A predator says, Trust me.

A healthy person can tolerate, “I’m going to check with myself.”

A predator creates urgency.

Wisdom can wait.

This applies everywhere: the stranger, the boyfriend, the friend, the teacher, the doctor, the lawyer, the spiritual leader, the parent, the crowd.

No costume makes someone your God.

If your body contracts, pay attention. The signal may not tell you exactly why something feels wrong, but it deserves investigation rather than suppression.

Children need practice with this before they need it in an alley, at a party, online, in a car, or relationship.

“What if I told you to touch that hot stove because I’m your parent?”

“No.”

“Come on. I’ll give you candy. You’re smart. You’re strong. Don’t you trust me?”

“No.”

It is the beginning of sovereignty. That matters deeply.

Parents: your job is not to raise obedient adults.

Your job is to raise people who can hear themselves.

Teach them to stop.

Teach them to wait.

Teach them to question.

Teach them that love does not demand surrendering discernment.

Teach them that God is not only above them.

God is within them.

And when the world dangles its little lantern and says, “Come with me,” may they know how to turn toward the light that does not need to lure them anywhere.