For much of the non-industrialized non-western world, teenagers are generally respectful and compliant. In general, they have an ounce of humility and don’t automatically believe they know it all because they have experienced hard times and have not had the answers while their parents did. For those in materially poorer places, this is particularly true, since helping the family is necessary for daily survival. In general, children have seen and appreciate their parents caring for then through their efforts to provide food, clothing and shelter and the children were trained into helping with those tasks at a relatively early age. There is a unity and common purpose in the natural family in most of the people of the earth since most of the people of the earth are relatively materially poor and see the need for each other.
In general, that is not true of the the average teen age American. There are exceptions, but those exceptions are rare in this age. In general, American teen agers:
Quite simply, U.S. teenagers are lost…enjoying the cage they have built for themselves not even knowing they are in a cage since virtually no one is speaking truth to them. They sit in their cage of fear, self-pride and selfishness playing their video game in the virtual worlds they make up for themselves - oblivious to their own self-condemnation and the pain and destruction that is coming their way due to THEIR choices.
Most U.S. teenagers spend most of their waking hours plugged into some kind of entertainment device. Whether it be music or video games, the purpose is the same…it is to AVOID thinking about important issues; to hide from the unpleasant realities they run into in the world so that they can pretend they are ‘good people’ when they ignore all the wrong and not DO anything about it; to stay in their comfortable cage where they won’t have to have courage to do what is right and become unpopular for that stance. Like I say elsewhere, we are either part of the problem or part of the solution. The Light said it this way:
“You are either for me or against me, gathering with me or scattering away from me.”
The dynamic between fear and self-pride is particularly strong in U.S. teenagers. In general, since they don’t have faith in their Father who loves them, they are fearful. Since they have no faith, they are extremely sensitive to how other’s perceive them and are very needy of being affirmed that they are “ cool”, acceptable or valuable. In other words, since they have not experienced the love and acceptance of their Creator/Father (because they have refused to turn to him in faith), they need to get that affirmation or acceptance from someone for this is how God designed us. Their refusing to turn to their Father produces a guilty conscience which produces much fear against which the self-pride fights.
When a teenager is disrespectful to an adult who suggests they are not a great human being or that they have a wrong perspective or attitude, they are doing so because their conscience knows the adult is right, which brings the self-pride which fights against the truth.
The Light of the world affirmed the most important teaching from God regarding the relationship between parents and children. He said this:
“For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ … But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
Honoring one’s parents is a fundamental relationship teaching from The Light of the world. In this example, honoring includes materially supporting them as they get older and less able to support themselves. But honoring goes way past mere material support. Honoring them means to look up to them, knowing that they are wiser than you. To honor them means that you will only say good things about them and appreciate their good qualities and their efforts to nurture, raise and support you. Honoring includes respecting them, which means you will not argue with them nor have bad or wrong attitudes towards them.
In case the reader has not noticed, the concepts in the prior paragraph are totally alien to the average U.S. teenager. This is due to two primary things. First, children’s parents don’t know this vital information about child raising either, and thus they don’t raise their children the right way. Second is the fact that the U.S. culture, especially the Hollywood pushed culture, despises the concept of honoring or respecting anyone but one’s self. So, children have a message pushed at them constantly – a message of, “YOU are the most important person in the world and everyone should value YOU as a great and knowledgeable person”. Unfortunately, due to the dark nature of human beings, the teenager is only too quick to receive that self-destructive message.
The concept of humility is hated and despised in U.S. popular culture. The culture promotes “self-esteem” and self-love which is the exact opposite of what the real, historical Person of Joshua of Nazareth teaches. Please listen to him:
“Which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? He does not thank the servant because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”
Instead of just passing over this saying or excusing it as irrelevant, why not instead try and ponder what he means when he says, “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’” In other words, the Creator Father has given humanity a set of commands on how to live and what to live for. So, even if we obey and fulfill all of Joshua of Nazareth’s commands – like, for example, “treat others the way you want to be treated” or “honor your father and your mother” – then we should not be patting ourselves on our backs saying, ‘oh, wow, don’t I do a great job with all the creative and important things I do’. No, rather we should be saying, ‘well, even when I have a great day, I fall short of loving perfectly or having the courage to speak truth when I am afraid of the consequences…not only did I not have a perfect day, but even if I did, I cannot improve upon what I have been asked to do by the given Leader of humankind’.
What is desperately needed in the U.S. is an awakening to the wrong and harmful ways that adults raise their children and the result of arrogant, ungrateful, selfish and yes, ugly-on-the-inside human beings called U.S. teenagers.
If you are a teenager reading this, then YOU need to start to compare your life to the Standard against which you will be judged…not by God (yes, He created the standard) but by YOUR OWN words, actions and attitudes. In other words, God is not going to condemn you. No, rather, He is and will be extending His hand out to you to try and RESCUE YOU from yourself and YOUR OWN self-condemnation. The fact is that YOU will condemn YOURSELF by your words and deeds. Please listen to Him:
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (not for people!); for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into final punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Consequences, dear reader…consequences—we are all going to leave this earth sooner or later, and then we are going to get either mercy or justice. For those who sought mercy/forgiveness for themselves and gave it to others…Life, eternal Life. For those who were too proud to listen to the One Voice that can save us from ourselves and to give us what we need to be truly good, helpful human beings…justice, punishment and the second death of annihilation of our soul.
First, however, you must escape the cage. Of course to see yourself in your cage and to see the destruction to which it leads you, you FIRST must have a little bit of faith in the Creator Father’s Messenger – the real, historical Joshua of Nazareth.
Even if your parents are somewhere in the range of really bad to not so great regarding knowing what is right and wrong, true and false, and trying to help you see and understand things – YOU are an adult now and thus your blaming bad parents will not justify you comfortably dwelling in your cage of fear, self-pride and selfishness. That is one of the undeniable truths of growing up…we DO become responsible and accountable for our own actions and blaming others will NOT stand the test of truth.
So, I ask U.S. teenagers to stop walking in darkness, for The Light does say:
“I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
This saying of The Light lays out only two possibilities. We are either following – and thus in – The Light. Or, we are in the darkness, following ourselves or some other unworthy voice.
You can be free, dear teenager, free from the fear and self-pride and selfishness that currently rule you. What it will take to be set free is everything you’ve got. You are going to have to decide what the life you have been given is really about. You are going to have to decide what is truly valuable in this life. You are going to have to realize that you have screwed up big time and that you have been living for the wrong things. You are going to have to see yourself in your self-made cage. You are going to have to understand and receive these truths of The Light:
“Those who seek to keep their life will lose it; while those who lose their lives for my sake shall find Life.”
“If you continue in my word (NOT Paul’s or the bibles or popular preacher, etc.) then you are my disciple/student/pupil/follower; and THEN you will know the truth and the truth will set you FREE!”
If you are a person who can see the destruction taking place and who want to help in trying to stop it, please, enter into his Life and come, join the Peaceful Revolution!