Adolescents are adorable!
I know that phrase would spark some rage in many parents reading this article. “Wait till you get there” is what I hear someone saying right now. 🙂🙂 But yes sincerely, they can be adorable even with their idiosyncrasies. I remember a discussion we had in a meeting, where the speaker asked a question. He wanted us to choose what phase of life seems the most difficult. Of course, the children said theirs was, the adolescents, young adults, adults, elderly all said same thing. Then the speaker affirmed that from research and statistics, the adolescent phase is the most difficult phase of life. One of the reasons he gave (which I agree with), is that they are in a fix. They are trying to figure themselves and everyone else. They want to discover themselves, and expect everyone else to know that. They are in the middle of a great tension between pleasing themselves and every other person.
Well, there is one key topic about adolescents I would like to mirror in today, and that is their association. Almost every adolescent I have had the privilege to counsel, and who have had to deal with wrong vices, had the wrong association. My concern has always been how that association was built. And my question is; Do guardians, parents, and teachers play any role in the association of adolescents? or is solely their choice? Is it possible to guide them through their selection of friends?
One strategy I believe could make a difference, is early intervention. Most times we wait too late before we realize the negative impacts the friends have had on our adolescents. Most of their friends are carried along from their childhood into adolescence. I will encourage all parents, guardians and teachers to pay close attention to those they talk to, chat with, stay with, comfortable with or play with. Study their interactions with others. Know their best friends as they grow from one stage to another. Ask deep questions about their best friends. Just be watchful but in all be very loving. Don’t make them uncomfortable to open their minds to you. Let them know you want the best for them. Apply wisdom and love as much as you can. And in everything, pray for them to make the right choices and have affinity for the right people.
May our adolescents be adorable. Amen.
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