marlon-minefree

Three ways to help teens:


The culture our students live in tells them consumer-ism/materialism is the road to satisfaction and happiness. The Scriptures tell them sacrifice is God's plan for each of us. The culture teaches them everything is relative; there are not any moral absolutes or truths that apply to every situation. The Word of God teaches them God has clearly established principles and precepts that tell us what is right and wrong for all people everywhere. This same culture encourages students to seek instant gratification of their drives and desires: Why wait for marriage? Indulge your desires and satisfy yourself now. The Bible encourages and admonishes them to pursue holiness, purity and self-control.

How can we help our students make kingdom choices instead of yielding to cultural pressures? How can we enable them to see the benefit of living by kingdom values rather than accepting cultural values? What can we do as Christian parents and youth leaders to stem the tide of consumerism, relativism and narcissism invading the lives of our students? Many principles can be cited, but three rise to the top of the list.

Look into the mirror

We need to begin by looking into the mirror to see what messages we are sending to our teens. Do our lives model kingdom values or cultural values? Have we allowed the cultural forces that prevail in our world today to invade and influence our lives? Have we accepted consumerism, relativism and self-gratification as an inevitable part of our daily lives?

Our youth need to see examples of believers who do not accept the idea that all truth and morality is relative. They need to see Christian adults who clearly believe money and more "stuff" do not satisfy their deepest needs and desires. They need to see Christian parents and adults who consistently demonstrate self-control and discipline in their relationships and life-style. As Mueller writes, "We have to live the truth in the context of deep, meaningful and enduring relationships with young people."

Teach your children well

We also need to be teaching our youth the Word of God. Teens are ignorant of and con-fused about truth because we have failed to teach them the Scriptures consistently and effectively. The best and most gifted teachers in our churches need to be teaching the Word to our junior high, senior high and college students. We need to teach our students sound, basic, biblical theology in our churches and our homes. We need to help and encourage our teens to wrestle with tough doctrinal questions in the context of their daily lives. We cannot give them pat answers or superficial glimpses into the depth of God's Word.
This will require intensive study and preparation on the part of those who teach our youth. We need to take teens below the surface and enable them to search for truth on their own. We also need to challenge them to read and study the Word for themselves.

I (Ralph) challenged our junior highers to read through the Bible in the year 2000. I continued to remind and encourage students throughout the year. Nearly a dozen took on the challenge, with more than half reading through at least the New Testament and three students completing the entire Bible by the middle of December. One mom wrote to me, "You can't imagine what a difference this made in my son's life."


Provide experiences of sacrifice

Finally, we need to provide youth with personal experiences that will clearly show them life is much more than the sum of the things we have accumulated or the self-gratifying experiences we enjoy. We need to en-gage them in experiences that will teach them how, and motivate them, to be self-controlled and sacrificial. When they learn the meaning and value of sacrifice, it can be life-changing.

Last year one of my high school students approached me (Jared) and asked a rather intriguing question: "We never take an offering during youth group time - can I give some money anyway?" Needless to say, I was almost blown away. I told him he certainly could give an offering. When he came to youth group the next week, I expected maybe $5 or $10, but once again was surprised when he handed me $60! Even though it meant he had to go out of his way, and no one else knew what he was doing, this teen was committed to living by the value of sacrifice.

Mission trips, retreats and service projects are vital experiences for our youth. We need to be sure that what we do as a part of those experiences will communicate the kingdom values we believe are important to our youths' spiritual development. Parents need to look for ways to expose their children to biblical truths and values. Perhaps the family vacation to Disney World is substituted with a trip to serve together at a mission in Mexico or on a Habitat for Humanity site in the inner city.

If we are concerned about the influence cultural values are having on the lives of our teens, we need to begin thinking in radical ways about how we can help them experience the joy and blessing of being sacrificial, truthful and self-controlled.