I was once a teenager too

In the body of Christ, we must always be loving and supportive in the good and the bad. Demonstrate God’s love through our actions.

As I was growing up, I was a difficult teenager. Talking back, showing attiTUDE, and well typical behavior problems. (Shakes head)

Everywhere I went I was disliked by my authorities.

You might ask “Didn’t you care even a little of what these people thought about you?”

Nope. I guess I became numb to caring. I lost all hope in everyone and got used to the complaining, yelling, judging, etc. I expected the same reaction from everyone, even from the people that I called “church folks“.

Boy was I wrong.

It’s really sad when people generalize or judge an entire group based on what a few people say or do. (Yes I was one of those)

You may ask “Where there rude people in church?”

Yes! But there’s always a few of these people in every group.

It wasn’t easy though.. I would constantly have people lecture me about subjects I never asked them for advice on. People that never bothered to reach out to me would approach me to question the clothes I wore outside of church or judge me. Even girls questioning or judging the pictures I posted on MySpace. (Oh the good MySpace days haha)

Long story short. A lot of those people aren’t following Christ anymore or are struggling to have a stable relationship with Him.

Now you may ask “Was there any good people at all in church?”

Oh yes! Church family is great but.. I truly thank God for 4 people in the church that stood out from the rest.

They cared for me, loved me, and showed God’s love through everything they did for me.

One of them was my Sunday school teacher, the other two were my pastors at the time, and the forth one was my youth leader at the time.

I think everyone knew I was struggling with a lot in my personal life. But these four people truly took the time to counsel me, listen to me, give me a hug when I truly needed one, make me laugh, make themselves available to me when I closed myself up, and much much more!

Today there are many teenagers in the church struggling to stay in the church because there aren’t enough people that are willing to listen, instead point and judge. Not enough people willing to love, instead look at them from afar.

Pretty sad..

Even more sad that my husband and I constantly hear people call them troublemakers and say ” they’re hard to manage so it’s better to not include them in programs..” What!?! (Really angers my husband and I when we hear people talk nonsense like that!)

We were all once teenagers. Maybe not everyone was as difficult as me. But we all struggled with something at some point.. therefore we must be understanding, compassionate, loving to everyone. No exceptions.

Story time:

This past weekend my husband and I had the opportunity to spend time with teenagers from another church. But, my husband and I would always get complaints that they were a hand full in church events, and were reckless etc. (I was a little scared at first) But let me tell you! Sweetest kids ever! My husband and I fell in love with all of them and their personalities.

But after, my husband and I were very frustrated analyzing the situation. There are very few people willing to spend time with that age group. Therefore, they don’t understand them!

Let us meditate on our teenagers. Not just in church, maybe in your family, work place, etc.

They get enough junk from the world. Let us give more love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:7‬ ‭