Do Hard Things

                                                              
                                                            Do Hard Things

I want to brag on the young people at my church.  I have had the pleasure of attending retreats with them, see them working at VBS and to hear amazing reports of the work that was done on their mission trip.  Ever since I can remember... adults, who used to be teenagers by the way, have a skeptical view of those of the adolescent age.

I discovered these quotes years ago when I began doing youth ministry:
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”
                                    ― Socrates 470 B.C.

"The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress."
                             — Peter the Hermit A.D. 1274

So, as far as I can tell this is nothing new.  But as I began, many of the teens here are exceptions to the norm of the culture.  I did a study this summer with boys ages 11-14.  We read a book called Do Hard Things written by two 19 year old twin young men.  When they were 16 their parents prodded them to rise above the low expectations of their culture by literally doing what no other teenager was doing.  At 17 they helped run a political campaign.  They also began a Blog for teens called Rebelution. 

So these boys, young men, are reading a chapter a week, memorizing the verse at the bottom of this article and imagining who they can be by thinking about what it means to rise above low expectations.  Pray for them.  It won’t be easy.  It will be tempting to give up and behave like everyone else.  Their peers won’t understand.  But I believe if they can rise to the challenge, they will be leaders at their schools, on their sports teams and here at church. 

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
                                          1 Timothy 4:12