I would like to ask your prayers. My son is 16 years old. He no longer wants to go to mass, and he hangs around with the wrong crowd. I had to appear with him Monday before a court officer because he was caught smoking, he is under age, and with a counterfeit controlled substance. He had to produce his report card from school. I didn't receive his last report card due to a mix up. I asked the secretary for another. She sent it home. It was the best report card he ever had. I promised him money if he brought his grades up, formerly they were pretty bad. I was so proud. We presented it to the court officer and he was amazed as he didn't see good cards often. I was going to tell the officer how bad he had been, but, with that good card I thought perhaps he was turning himself around and there was no real need to do this. The same day his teacher phoned and said he was performing badly and he was in danger of failing. I couldn't understand this given his good report card. I even thought he might have counterfeited it. I couldn't figure how this could be done as he didn't know the address of the school or the proper spelling of the teacher or the principal's names. I went to school today to determine why they both were saying he wasn't doing well. The upshot was: He used my scanner to copy and change his grades. I was so disappointed, and felt so foolish. Here I was trying to defend a boy who was so obviously a fraud. He lies so much I can't really trust anything he says, but as St. Paul says "love believes all things" I guess. It is just that I know his potential and I know if he really tried he could do as well as his phony grades indicated. Just last week he stopped seeing a few of his bad friends and I thought he was turning himself around but, he still insists his report card was the one given him by the school, and the confusion was the fault of the schools. I keep thinking I must have failed somewhere. People keep telling me I haven't and his bad behavior isn't somehow my fault, but, I still think if I somehow did something differently he would improve. If you ask him he will blame me for all he does. He uses me as an excuse. I even do that. I really need prayers.