Why I Am Hopeful about Our Young People

“These kids today just don’t care about religion.”

“This group of young people is so self-centered.”

“These high schoolers don’t know anything about the Bible.”

Maybe you’ve heard (or even said) some of these things recently. We look at the generation of teenagers that are around us and we worry about them. We worry about their lack of effort. We are concerned about their lack of devotion to Bible study. And we are concerned about the regular temptations that are so strong in their lives.

I’m here today to tell you that I have hope for these young people.

Why?

Because I remember hearing many of the same things about teenagers…

…when I was one.

I am 34 and, Lord willing, will be 35 next month. Basically, I am a generation older than our teens today. But I remember folks saying things of great concern for teenagers when I was a teen.

And, I’ll be honest, much of it had merit. Many of us were not the Bible students we should have been. We fell into sin far more times than we should have. We regularly showed a lack of effort.

However, several years later, I see how much good is being done by those same young people, and I have hope for our young people of today.

• I look around at our Christian colleges, universities, and schools of preaching and see folks from my generation being hired as faithful teachers in all areas of academia.
• Nearly every time I open a publication like Gospel Advocate or think, or when I read from a flurry of blogs, I am motivated to greater faithfulness by writers who are my age (or even younger).
• I see Christian husbands and wives showing the world the love of Christ in their homes, and raising children to love the Savior.
• I see young adults with a global perspective, having a desire to take the Gospel to the very ends of the earth.

And on and on it goes.

Are every one of those former teenagers faithful? Of course not.

Will every teenager we are concerned about now be faithful in years to come? I wish I could say “yes,” but we know that some will fall to the “god of this world.”

But I see so much good in our teenagers today, and I see the potential that I believe is soon to be realized. When my generation is 40, 50, and beyond, I think we will marvel at some of the truly amazing and faithful things being done by these same “kids” we were so concerned about.

QUESTION: What potential do you see in our young people today that gives you hope?

———————–

Photo credit: mikebaird on creative commons

To receive our blog posts via rss, click here. To subscribe via email, click here.