Northland College principal John Tapene has offered the following words from a judge who regularly deals with youth. “Always we hear the cry from teenagers, ‘What can we do, where can we go?’
“My answer is this: Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons, and when you’ve finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational activities, and your parents do not owe you fun.
“The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness and lonely again. In other words, grow up, quit being a cry baby, get out of your dream world, and develop a backbone not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important and you are needed. It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday. Someday is now and that somebody is you!”
~ Seen on Facebook
The teen years are wonderful years in any young person’s life. Teenagers should be allowed to have fun, and enjoy their adolescence. However, even the young can and should be serious minded and trustworthy. This is especially important spiritually. As Paul wrote Titus, “Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you” (Titus 2:6-8).
