Do teens get a bad rap? It’s something I have been thinking about recently, after a conversation with a couple of friends.
My teens have been part of a wonderful youth group at church. In fact, I am very appreciative of this ministry and the impact I know it has made on my children.
But within the church there is an element of naysayers when it comes to teens. They don’t even have to be doing anything outright wrong but they get “the look.”
You know what I mean. The look that says, “I’m watching you,” as if it’s assumed they are going to do something wrong.
While it’s not a widespread problem, it is a big enough one that some of the teens have noticed. And I’m quite sure it’s an issue outside my church.
In fact, I have seen times at the mall when a group of teens are walking by and suddenly a security officer is following them. Sure, there could be something going on. But whenever you have a group of young people, there seems to be this stigma attached to them…they must be up to no good.
And it doesn’t help when we are constantly getting fed negative stories about teens…murder, rape, pregnancy, drug addiction. It can leave you to wonder if there really are any good teens out there.
I believe there are. In fact, I believe most of them are good.
Being a teenager isn’t easy. I remember. But I also know that some of the challenges teens face today are much greater than what I did.
Maybe the problem is us. It could be that we have given teens this bad rap and so now some are trying to live up to it. After all, if that’s what society thinks, why not go with it?
Perhaps if we started seeing teens as good…if we started believing in them…if we started reaching out to them…if we started helping them through their difficulties. Well, maybe they would live up to different expectations. Or perhaps we would just come to realize that they aren’t so bad after all.
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Photo by Malingering in Flickr