by J A Williamson

Created on: May 07, 2008

Common problems faced by American Christian teenagers

As our Christian children face their teens and young adult hood, they will face the first challenges to their faith. As they hopefully come to realize that their parents, teachers, and pastors are just regular people. That they too will make mistakes, sometimes big ones. Our children will find in their schools and colleges the facts of faith they accepted so easily, are considered naive myth by most people. They will see that the Christian way of life does not dominate in their town, state, country or world. They must come to terms with the fact of what faith really means to them.

The key to equipping our young people with the ability to maintain their faith through this most difficult phase of life is to teach love and respect for every person. Instead of limiting and restricting the knowledge and experiences they wish to gain, we should empower them with strength of character. We must teach them to respect the differences in people, and how they live and make choices. By validating everyone's freedom to choose, we give them the ability to validate their Christian choice, in the larger world they will live in. We do not need to fear or hide from other opinions or worldviews. Only with love and respect for another person and their views will we ever be able to create opportunity for a relationship. To fully respect the beliefs of another is to respect our own right to believe in the unseen.

We must equip young people with the strength of character to be different. How do we bring this strength into their lives? By helping them come to a full understanding of the choice of faith. They must understand this choice is personal and they are responsible to it alone. We must tell them that faith is about believing and not knowing. With an actual trust in God they will inevitably experience peace and strength.

We must teach them that their beliefs will be challenged. There will be points in their lives when they will fold their hands and get on their knees to pray, and feel completely alone. They won't know if God is listening anymore. They will be challenged to endure on their own.

We must teach them that their beliefs will change as they get older. As we learn about ourselves, God and our faith, things change. The only way their faith can survive as they grow and change is with the foundations of love in action. If we teach anything before love, our children's faith is guaranteed to fail.

Intelligence, dedication, passion,

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