How many times have you heard an adult say the "kids today are no good?" Well I'm here to tell you "The young people of today are no different from what they have always been…At the beginning of the world there were only two young people, Cain and Abel, and one of them was a delinquent." I doubt Adam was guilty of saying Cain was running with the wrong crowd. Years ago, Peggy and I worked with the youth at our church. We taught Sunday School , we were I guess what you would call youth directors, and I was blessed to serve as chaplain of the football team at Pebblebrook High School. During this time, it was truly amazing what these kids taught me. I have never enjoyed doing anything or been rewarded as much for anything I've done. Let me emphasize it
was all good times. So you might say, "Well you worked with good church kids." The first thing the kids taught me was that it's almost impossible to tell the difference between church kids and unchurched kids. At times they can all be good and respectful and the next minute they are all into mischief and just plain smart mouths. When we started teaching Sunday school, we had about 12 or 14 teenagers that came regularly. Within 6 months we would have as many as 50 kids and sometimes 65. Now I guess you want to know how Peggy and I increased the attendance so much in such a short time. Well..... we didn't. That's right, it wasn't us. It was the 12 or 14 regulars that did it. We would have visitation once a week, and the regulars decided who we would visit. And who do you think they chose? They chose their friends from school, mostly unchurched kids. They would choose kids from broken homes. Kids with alcoholic parents. Kids that had never stepped into a church. Some of these kids had been in trouble with the law. But what our regulars taught us was that these kids were hungry for God's word. They weren't bad kids. they were kids that not only needed direction in their life, they
wanted direction in there lives. Our regulars taught us that sometimes kids not only need but want an adult to talk to beside their parents. The chaplain thing was similar. The big difference back then that you wouldn't or couldn't get at most schools today was I had a Head Coach that was extremely supportive and a School Principal that gave me complete run of the school. I was at that school most days, not preaching but just being seen and cutting up with the kids. They knew they could count on me and Peggy. I could tell you some stories that would take your breath. Some good and some bad. Most people don't understand the pressure some teens have. I wrote a little about my Grandfather in an earlier post. He was a blacksmith and all my life I was told by everyone that knew him how good of a man he was. And from the stories I know of him, he was a very very fine and caring man. If alive today he would have just turned 133 years old. Seems like most men of this generation that we hear of were really good men and I believe they were. But when I hear this, it brings to mind a tombstone I ran across one day. I need to go check it out again but believe it may have been my great great Grandfather's tombstone. Engraved on it was the following epitaph talking about my grandfathers generation:
Here lies a shining example for a degenerate generation.
Guess they didn't think to highly of their youth in the 1800s either. Guess what I'm trying to say is next time you start to judge the youth of today because you may not like their clothes or their music. When you have decided they will never amount to anything because of the cell phones or computer games they play. Think back. It wasn't long ago the adults were saying the world was doomed because of the likes of us!!!!!!!!
Keep the love !!!!!!
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