"Should schools give free contraceptives? If pregnant, should girls have to tell their parents? Can a teacher take a girl for an abortion without her parents' knowledge?"
Those questions never came up when I was a teen. It was hard to be a teen even without those questions and possibilities.
I raised two daughters. I found their teen years to be wonderful and scary. I thought, hoped for, and prayed a lot about them.
Some of today's teens live in as much financial and physical security and safety as a person could want. Yet, many teens still feel isolated. Money will not meet every need. Money cannot have a conversation or listen to your hopes, your disappointments, or your questions.
At the other extreme, some of today's teens live almost alone. There is no one at home or there is hardly even a home.
Some teens live closer to the streets than most people can imagine. Gangs form this way, not always along ethnic lines, but along lines of need, loneliness, and fright.
Most adults are taking care of home, working, shopping, visiting doctors, helping family, and trying to be a good neighbor. I am one of them. Many of us do care about teens, although some of us no longer have teens, or never had children, or lost one or more children years ago.
My uncle was a 15-year-old runaway. He was cared for at home by a mom working hard to hold a family of five children together. The father had not been there for a while. My uncle remembered abusive words and physical punches from his alcoholic dad.
My mother was the youngest of those five children. She told me how she hated being called an orphan, after her dad died. She told me about a kind neighbor who saw the needs and made a dress for her.
Her brother, my uncle who ran away at 15, hopped into a freight train boxcar that took him to another state. A man took pity on him, and hired him for a lowly job in the train yards. From there, he worked his way up.
My grandmother not only made a simple home life for my mom and the others left at home, four girls. She held onto hope, through faith in Christ. As they say, "She was a praying woman." God sent people along the way who helped, and somehow they made it.
If you are a teen, there are people that pray for you, with or without knowing your name. They want you to be loved, to know that your thoughts, dreams, and questions matter. There are people who want to help you overcome the pains of life, if you face things right now that seem overwhelming.
Years ago, a teen-aged boy on the streets of London was living in a box. He had left his home in northern England. He got into drugs, drinking, and bad company in London.
Without friends, work, or money, he felt cold, heat, or hunger every hour for over a year. One day, desperate and alone, he cried out to God from that cardboard box on the dirty London street. He cried out, "God, if you are there, help me!"
I heard and saw him on a BBC TV program a year or so after that. His first name was Charlie. He said that something unexplainable happened within himself when he cried out to God. He knew God heard, and God began to change his life.
As soon as he had drawing paper and pencil, Charlie began to draw and his work showed incredible talent. He was an artist and began to realize it. A community, a sort of family, in a church in London, made him a part of themselves and encouraged him.
BBC showed the architectural sketches that Charlie did. He also had a new dream that involved re-building old buildings.
Charlie got a job, and during vacation time he worked at a camp for kids and teens. He was a cheerful soul.
God saw Charlie's fear when Charlie was living in that box on London's dirty streets. When no one else noticed him, God heard Charlie's cry for help. God led him to people who wanted to help him grow into manhood.
I pray for you, dear teenager. And the God of prayer does hear. That's all many of us can do for you, for we do not know you. We do not know if you feel trapped in a box of problems or aloneness, so we pray. We know that God cares even more. Knowing that is what got many of us through adult times as scary as what you face now.
Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will hold thee up with my righteous right arm (Isaiah 41:10).
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