Can We Teach Our Youth To Love Again?

[Abigayles Legacy]

I have had this heavy on my heart for a while now and feel the need to share it as well as urge you to help me make a change.
I was listening to my Christian radio show the other day and heard the announcer say that we have become a generation of hermits. I thought about it and had to agree with him.
I work with children in all of the jobs I do. Teaching drama, leading praise and worship ...and the age range is 3 and up. I listen to parents and their conversations in the waiting rooms while they wait for their children. In Staten Island NY they have stopped teaching in many schools, penmanship, spelling and grammar. Yes this is what I heard and two parents confirmed it.
Today's children are becoming cyber savy can spin circles around us with their techno knowledge, but they no longer have the skills of street smarts with simple common sense, the ability to hold a conversation and are losing interpersonal skills not with just their parents but with each other.
If you come from the "hood" like me..I lived in the days of stoop ball, ringolivio, hide and seek, hit the penny, jacks, Israeli jacks, jump rope, and board games. We had sleep overs talked all night and played one on one games with eachother. We talked on the phone for hours and did eachothers hair and makeup.
Our kids interact with a computer that is void of emotion and they are becoming void of emotion as well. A woman told me about her neice who sat texting her friend about a slumber party they were having the woman said to her..."What is that you are texting your friend on?"...the child said "DUH A PHONE"...the woman said "Yes a phone wouldn't it be easier to call and discuss tonights plans?" the child said. "NO!" Our kids sit in the same room with their friends sitting next to them and text LOL, btw, brb,...which means Laughing out loud, by the way, be right back...they talk to eachother this way now when they are together.
They don't talk about deep feelings they talk cyber talk....it is hard enough to reach the secular generation but this is infiltrating our kids in the church too.
So I ask you what do we do?
I made a proposal to my church and am waiting on an answer a method on how to make services for the Tween generation more exciting and cutting edge. In my church I have been told that our youth have been so overlooked for so long and passed from hand to hand that they are lost.
This is happening all over. Why aren't the churches making YOUTH a priority?
With what is happening in this world today we need to train them up. The problem OLD METHODS do not work anymore we need cutting edge ideas to stimulate and cause them to be enthusiastic. We need to talk to the kids, share things from the past and help them understand how these things shaped today. I am so tired of people saying well that isn't relevant because we are from "this" community we weren't raised here. ALL COMMUNITIES have their history but everything is relevant. Their is a book called The Dictionary Of Cultural Lliteracy what every AMERICAN needs to know. It was on the best seller list. Marva Collins an African American teacher wrote Marva's Way a wonderful read. She left the school system to work with the children no one wanted to work with the ones they said could not be helped and proved they not only could be helped but could thrive.
She recommended the Cultural Literacy book and I bought it and studied it and learned so much from it and will be sharing this with my kids.
What she discusses is how we do not hand things down to our kids anymore. We do not share things that were shared with us...relevant America building blocks world building blocks that our kids need to know.
It is not enough for kids to listen to todays music, and hear R and B and hip hop and rock. Where did this come from? What are the foundations of these things?. I used music because it is part of me...but their are building blocks in all things...I wish I had the money to open a place tomorrow...I would open a a coffee house that had hang out day. Where I took every old fashioned toy that people had to interact with one another and teach kids what real live relationships are. Sure kids have casual sex. Sure kids rate eachother and play it like a game. Sure kids have abortions and don't think twice about life...why because they INTERACT WITH LIFELESS COMPUTERS. I think the internet is a wonderful tool...but it is not there to replace, it is there to enhance.
If you too are seeing this decline in your youth I urge you to do something.
I am doing something and as soon as it is accepted and we start a manual and it is copyrighted although I did a poor mans copyright...I will start to share it.
We need to pray. We need to stop telling our kids to be quiet and behave...we need to ask them to share what is on their minds and listen to their questions. We need to listen to their fears and have them share their concerns and we have to work with them to train them up in understanding why God is their center.
We need to teach them God esteem with self esteem. We need to make them feel that they are part of something amazing and great. Not that God is condemning and judgemental but that He has a great work for them....the GREAT COMMISSION. I sat with tweens in my church yesterday and asked them if they knew what the Great Commission was they looked at me with blank stares on their faces. I sat and explained and said to them I need your help tell me how to reach the kids in this church. I asked each of them to give me their hands and said take this it is a box filled with the gifts that God has for you. Go home and go into a private place with God and open that box and write down what He tells you. Listen to what He has for you and the gifts and talents He wants to share with you and then come and share them with me...because you matter and I want to know.
NOW IS THE TIME!!! We need to save today's youth from extinction of having a real childhood. We need to bring joy and love back into their lives.
We need to give them purpose and drive and we need to LISTEN to them.
Are you with me...together with God we can move mountains.
And this is IMHO.
God Bless
G

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I want to leave a legacy... His Legacy.

"Don't be afraid; just believe."

Mark 5:36

[EMLGrandma]

Praying for this. It is so important, and you know what? As my MIL told me when I sent this to be prayed for - ALL of us need to remember this. Adults, too. We need to remember that we need human contact - whether hearing someone's voice or actually being with them.

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More of you, dear Lord,

and less of me...

[Ariella]

hi gayle ......... i know i've seen this over here in Australia as well; with the youth knowing less and less about communicating in person and more and more about texting or email .... a colleagues 4yr old grandson was learning how to make powerpoint presentations at the same time i hear of 7yr olds who are only just learning how to read????? i think ..... as you say churches need to be teaching the youth to love again .... and to communicate with the body of Christ in the precious ways he gave us including sight and sound .... watching body language which can give so many clues. Yes modern technology can be wonderful but theres so much more as well. We know how precious youth are as the future generations and they need role models now who will teach them these things

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"It is never too late to be what you might have been" - George Elliot

Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again, I say - rejoice!

[Abigayles Legacy]

We as online Christians need to start to encourage our youth to get involved in church ministry. We need to give them online missions of interacting with real people we need to brainstorm peeps...really brainstorm.

__________________

I want to leave a legacy... His Legacy.

"Don't be afraid; just believe."

Mark 5:36

[Hisbygrace]

Yes, I believe that we can teach our youths to love again. In this rush, rush, rush world we have let the most important people slip by unnoticed. For our children to know love they have to be shown love. To often we get caught up in the busy of
trying to provide everything thing under the sun for our children that we forget the most important and valuable thing they need most, and that is to feel secure in love.
Material things will rust and decay away, but what we plant in the hearts of our children will last forever.

[Bevik]

It seems like kids don't know how to interact with other people anymore. They have their noses stuck in video games. My son joined the Army and now he is just learning how to deal with people instead of video games. I should have not let him get hooked on video games.

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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2nd Chronicles 7:14

[Breezy3]

We all have our ways of zoning out.. video games are big with the kids, but a lot of adults are equally addicted. So I have noticed that it is not just the kids...a lot of adults truly do not know how to deal with people respectfully either.

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My Purpose In Life, Is Living A Life Of Purpose, In HIM!

JESUS is the answer!!!!

[haylz01]

maybe youth dont want to learn to love
maybe life is easier with out love
times have changed
things are diffrent
as for the coment apbut knowing heaps bout computers but not having common sence
i have more sommon sence and can hold a conversation with almost anyone
but love
love is in the "to hard basket"

[Breezy3]

Originally Posted by Hisbygrace

Yes, I believe that we can teach our youths to love again. In this rush, rush, rush world we have let the most important people slip by unnoticed. For our children to know love they have to be shown love. To often we get caught up in the busy of
trying to provide everything thing under the sun for our children that we forget the most important and valuable thing they need most, and that is to feel secure in love.
Material things will rust and decay away, but what we plant in the hearts of our children will last forever.

sister! We need to be HIS examples of love.

Originally Posted by haylz01

maybe youth dont want to learn to love
maybe life is easier with out love
times have changed
things are diffrent
as for the coment apbut knowing heaps bout computers but not having common sence
i have more sommon sence and can hold a conversation with almost anyone
but love
love is in the "to hard basket"

I know plenty of young people and yes some of them want nothing to do with love and everyone of them has been hurt badly in their lives. I was there once, I remember. And I am living proof that a person can be hurt horribly in their life and not only love again, but learn to love others with HIS love, in spite of myself. I also know plenty of young people who want to learn how to love others and to learn how to be good to themselves.

Times have changed. That is a fact. But JESUS is still JESUS and that has not changed. And HE says love is mandatory and that is good enough for me. One thing is for sure, if I shut the source of love out of my life, love for others will come very hard and I will continue to let the enemy totally sabotage myself over and over again. For me it is simply a choice. I am praying for you. I truly care about you and your circumstances.

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My Purpose In Life, Is Living A Life Of Purpose, In HIM!

JESUS is the answer!!!!

[Bevik]

Today culture teaches that one has to put self first. I think kids have lapped that up. You can see it in the disrespect for authority and for other people's property.Kid don't know how to take care of thing when they borrow something. I have several things of mine come back broken when my son's friends have borrowed them. They even would take my deodorant cans and throw them into the firepit out back to watch them blow up. My husband would wonder where all the deodorant went. I had my son't friends steal expensive hand decorated place settings from my drawer. One girl threw plates, spoons and cigarette ashes down the laundary chute. Another went up on the garage roof to french kiss her girlfriend! Needless to say I banned the girls from my property and gave a lecture to my son about borrowing things.

Some kids even put their own self desires and need to be 'cool' ahead of learning proper grammar and spelling. Some of them have grammar and spelling so bad you cannot understand what they are typing on a forum. It is as if they are posting in a foreign language. The texting technology in cellphones don't help this. I think it has greatly contributed to this problem.

I think these behaviors are symptomatic of a culture that teaches people to put their self ahead of everything else.

Christ teaches the opposite. His teaching you can put in an acrostic.

Jesus
Others
Yourself

I learned this acrostic in Sunday school and even got a keychain in day camp when I was a child. Some of you probably learned it too. It is so true. People are happier when they place Christ at the top of their priorities and think of others before themselves.

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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2nd Chronicles 7:14