Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Hormones & Quirks

I never knew how much I liked teen agers until I became a youth leader. In fact, I think as  a young adult I was intimidated by them. I kind of grew into my comfort zone with them as my own children  went through their teen years. God has given me such a heart for teens, my heart breaks for them in today's world.

When I first began working with them, it was a small intimate group of kids that pretty much knew each other since their nursery days in the church. I cared about each of them personally. For the most part, I  watched them grow up. As the group grew, so did my world. I became more aware of their troubled hearts & the things that slap them in the face.

Some of them came from your so called "typical family," but lets be honest, most of them didn't. Few kids in today's world live a life with their same 2 parents & grow into their teen years with the security that comes with 2 parents that have a life long love & commitment to each other. However, it seems that in today's world, the best parents can have teens that go astray, & the non present parents may have teens which soar. The "nontraditional family" has raised some pretty awesome teens too. Sometimes, there is no rhyme or reason. It's just hormones & quirks.

We are all wired differently. That's not rocket science. So… it's what we do with what comes our way that sometimes determines the outcome. Sometimes the outcome is awful, so how do we respond to awful? How does a teen respond to overwhelming conditions that are out of their control & so far from what they would choose? Sometimes their life really sucks, & they need someone to help them process their anger & heartaches.

Being the wise old woman that I am (LOL), I must say based on my observations throughout my life, it's when teens try to solve their own problems or process their own depression, anger, etc… that their lives often take a turn for the worse. Just last night, I learned of a struggle of one of the teens in my youth group. I looked back on those years, probably 8 ish  years ago, & I had no idea this young person was suffering. Teens are masters at covering their heartache! They are masters at internalizing their pain & expressing it in harmful ways that pretty much sabotage their own lives.

Lately I've been aware of some pretty hard slaps in the face of teens I love. I sit here wondering why these slaps had to be so harsh. Why do they have to endure such pain? Why is it so hard to be a teen in today's culture? We can blame technology for much of it, but in the case of these few teens I mention, technology had nothing to do with what hit them square in the face. My heart weeps for them. I just needed to get this off my chest!


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