A Challenge...

We see the news headlines.

 It's in our face 24/7 through social media.

We see it with our eyes and hear it with our ears just walking out the door.

Our world is a scary place to live in and raise children.

We are quick to talk about how the youth of this generation is spiritually/morally bankrupt.

I'm not going to deny that it IS a huge issue.  I'm not going to debate the causes (for now!).

However, I am going to issue a challenge.  I'm accepting the challenge and hope others will as well.

Today....

Find the one. 

Find the teen/young adult that is making smart choices. The one that is making small or big decisions that are putting them on a path that the world doesn't celebrate as normal. The one that is feeling invisible and alone.  The one that is working hard, showing respect, or learning valuable lessons about being a productive adult in an all "about me" society. 

As an adult, it is HARD to live differently than the world at times.  It is exponentially harder to do so as a youth.  We used to call it "peer pressure".  In this day in age, it goes FAR beyond just pressure from peers.  They feel pressure of the entire world.  Literally.

Over the last several weeks, I've listened to my daughter just talk about what she sees in her world.  So many truly broken hearts.  The battles that our sons and daughters face in this world are NOT insignificant and trivial.  Almost daily she shares of someone heavy on her heart that is navigating brokenness.  She often shares of how hard it is for this generation to feel confident to do the right thing, unfortunately even amongst those of faith. 

Listening to her (and even recently to our older son as he every so slowly begins to share things in his world) convicted my own heart.

They NEED our support.
They NEED us.
They NEED someone to simply just say, "I saw that.  Thank you."
They NEED someone to just tell them, "Don't give up."
They NEED someone to just let them know that there is hope through the brokenness.
They NEED to know they are not alone and that we ALL struggle with something.
They NEED a smile, a laugh, a hug.
They NEED to know we are approachable.
They NEED to know WE FAIL.

Today, find the one....the one in your daily life.  The one in the market place that holds the door.  The one that shows up on time and ready to work.  The one that you know made a hard decision, but did the right thing.  The one that chose to dress in a way that shows their inner beauty through modesty (which can still be VERY fashionable), instead of revealing. The one that is studying hard or putting in the extra effort in their extracurricular activity. The one that......

Maybe it's even the one that you don't know well.  The one that you just "sense" needs a bit of encouragement.  We don't necessarily have to know every detail of what is happening to know that they are hurting.

As moms, we often talk about how we might struggle with feeling invisible.  How no one seems to notice or doesn't care about the effort we put in, the sacrifices we make, or how exhausted we are some days.  We can definitely have those days and feelings.  We can often feel deflated and truly just struggle through those emotions.

I think we have a generation of youth feeling the same way.

They need to know we notice and care.

It's easy to overlook them with the headlines around us.  It's easy to overlook them when what we see outside our door draws our attention in a negative way.

Let's challenge ourselves to search for the positives and support it. They need our support. They need the encouragement to keep making the hard decisions. 

They need to know that their light is shining in a dark world.