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Whatever others may think, I was an obedient young man. You might say, “How can that be? You were raised in a practising Christian home, and you became a Muslim!” Or you might point to my struggles at school and say, “You were given the best opportunities and you squandered them!”

All true. But I was obedient in the sense that I never abandoned the morals and ethics my parents instilled in us. Even during my atheist and agnostic phases, for example, I still respected their expectations that intimate relationships be confined to the bounds of marriage. I knew what was expected of me, and I obeyed.

Unfortunately, my personality is not much like my parents’. Where they had authority to enforce their strict expectations, I don’t really think I have much influence on anyone at all. Certainly, nobody could fear me. And respect me? Hardly. I am far too passive and retiring to imprint my mark on anything.

And so it is that I find myself completely unprepared for the challenges of raising teenagers, so fraught with tumultuous emotions. It turns out that my obedience wasn’t exactly the adolescent norm, and owes more to my developmental delays than any kind of piety. However it may appear to others, I don’t think I ever rebelled.

But these are different times. Most young people are far removed from any kind of traditional ethics. For all the lamentations of right-wing demagogues, ours is not a Christian country; it’s very much a post-religious society. For two or three generations now, religion has been entirely absent from the life of most British families.

This is the environment in which our children find themselves. Even if they were raised in religious homes, that is but incidental to their experience. They are impacted more by the culture of their friends than their quaint parallel life at home. The life their friends lead is considered the norm. The life of their parents, some strange aberration.

The result, an ever widening chasm between us, as they choose to reject the parallel life at home in favour of the dominant cultures epitomised by their friends. However much we wanted to hold onto them, and protect them from harm, they are forcibly letting go and pushing us away. Theirs is the natural adolescent character: fomenting dissent.

How we will fare is anyone’s guess. Will we weather the storm and emerge on the other side unscathed? Or will it present new tests far too difficult to endure? Certainly, what worked for our parents probably won’t work for us. In those days, a stern rebuke was enough to send me hurrying back into line. But this is a dissenting generation, used to issuing rebukes themselves.

May God help us in the task ahead.