My 7th grade English teacher Mrs. Wolford seemed old enough to be my mom. She would come to class and drop grammatical knowledge on us daily. She would tell us about her family life and the things that happened at home with her old husband and her child. She would sit in the teacher’s room with all of the other old teachers and talk about old people stuff. After school, she would jump in her car like all the other old people to go home and live the life of an older woman. As a 13 year old, she had me convinced: I never want to be 30 years old like her.
This is a turning point in my life. This month I turn 30. I know some of you parents find it comical that I believe turning 30 is such a big deal. But it’s pretty serious to me. And it’s not turning 30 that scares me. It’s the reality that I’m one year further from being young and one year closer to being old. The reality hit me not to long ago when I said a word that I KNEW was cool, but a kid looked at me with this bratty little smirk and said, “Dude, people don’t say that any more.” I was floored. I had officially became Mrs. Wolford.
That’s the reason I get flattered when 13 year olds call me to hang out with them at Caribou. Or 16 year olds call me to see how my week was. And this has been made possible because of two reasons. The first reason is God’s grace. He has called me to be a missionary to the youth of Isanti County and has opened the door for me to do ministry.
The second reason is fairly simple: they have my ears and my heart. It’s easy as an adult to not be interested in the risqué world of youth and the culture they are immersed in. But it’s not easy to be a teenager in that culture. But one thing I’ve learned is youth love it when they have an “old person” in their life that’s curious about how things work in their world and when we give them a chance to school us on the reality of today’s culture.
One great opportunity adults have and need to take advantage of is sitting down with the youth and studying the “whys” and the “hows” of their world. This gives us the chance to understand why they do the things they do and act the way they act. Too often we criticize this generation and expect them to handle the situations the way we did when we were their age. When we can understand this generation, then we can understand how and what needs to be communicated in order to see kids practicing being in the world, but not of it.
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
That’s the reason I get flattered when 13 year olds call me to hang out with them at Caribou. Or 16 year olds call me to see how my week was. And this has been made possible because of two reasons. The first reason is God’s grace. He has called me to be a missionary to the youth of Isanti County and has opened the door for me to do ministry.
The second reason is fairly simple: they have my ears and my heart. It’s easy as an adult to not be interested in the risqué world of youth and the culture they are immersed in. But it’s not easy to be a teenager in that culture. But one thing I’ve learned is youth love it when they have an “old person” in their life that’s curious about how things work in their world and when we give them a chance to school us on the reality of today’s culture.
One great opportunity adults have and need to take advantage of is sitting down with the youth and studying the “whys” and the “hows” of their world. This gives us the chance to understand why they do the things they do and act the way they act. Too often we criticize this generation and expect them to handle the situations the way we did when we were their age. When we can understand this generation, then we can understand how and what needs to be communicated in order to see kids practicing being in the world, but not of it.
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
– John 17:14-16
2 comments:
JoJo: keep on writing - your words have great insight into our world as it is today, and you always stay true to the Gods Truth.
Thx so much Eve. So greatful my wife has found a life long friend in you and she has brought one into my life.
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