Teenage Girls
I love a room full of teenage girls –a classroom, that is. They are all so different. Some are vibrant and full of life, while others are quiet and seemingly lethargic. Some are tall and nearly fully matured physically, while others still look like younger girls. When they first come into the room, they are usually very quiet and don’t have very much to say – even if they are talkative in any other location.
As you might have guessed, I (along with another elder’s wife) teach a Bible class for teenage girls on Sunday morning. We get to our classroom early so we will be there when the girls begin to arrive. There are two reasons for this. We want them to know that the class is important to us, and that we are there to talk with them if they have anything they need to discuss.
Now I know some of you may be wondering how we relate to teenage girls since there is such a wide age difference. I have even had someone not many years older than the girls say to me that she felt like she could probably relate to them better. Maybe on some level she could.
However, as I have taught in many settings in my years as both a public school teacher and as a Bible class teacher, I have learned some really important lessons. Let me share a few with you:
- I don’t have to try to be like them – talk like them, dress like them, act like them – in order to get them to listen to me. I just need to be myself and welcome them with a smile and a friendly look when they come into the class.
- I don’t have to beg them to show respect for me or the subject that we are studying. I just need to let them know how important God’s Word is to me and help them to share that love. If I show respect for them, most of them will show respect for me. Age doesn’t matter.
- I need to be ready to give Bible answers to their questions – even those questions that don’t have anything to do with our subject. But I also need to be ready to kindly guide them back to the subject we are studying unless what they have asked will help them in their Christian walk. If I don’t know the answer to their questions, I must be honest, but offer to find a Bible answer for them by the next class.
- I need to remember that they don’t have the years of experience that I have of studying the Bible, living through experiences that have helped me grow as a Christian, or weathering the tough times in life. For that reason and at this point in their lives, I don’t need to make them feel as though they should know every detail about the Bible or how to handle every situation in life.
- Most importantly, I need to help them to love God and His Word. They need to realize that the Bible is not a work of fiction, but a book about real flesh and blood people who inhabited the earth just like they are. They were faced with decisions and hardships and laughter and happiness, but they just lived in a different time than we do. They need to know that God loved them in the same way He loves us.
Give me a class full of teenage girls to teach. I don’t look like them; I don’t talk like them; I don’t act like them, but I love them and want to share God’s love with them so they will grow into beautiful women of God who fulfill the roles God intended for them to fill.
“Older women…are to teach what is good, and so train the younger women…” (Titus 2:3,4)
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AUTHOR: Donna Faughn
