Lost Generation

So much is made of this generation and how it is lost and has no direction.  Isn’t that said about every generation and won’t that be said of every generation to come?  Every generation thinks that there generation is better than the one that came before it and every generation feels that they had more vision and purpose than the generation that will follow.  The reality is, your generation is what you make of it.

There are those who make poor choices.  Those who feel that acceptance is more important than character.  Those who feel that the choices they make today to be popular will not affect them later in life.  Those choices do make a difference and they do affect you for the rest of your life.  I am a walking testimony to poor choices and consequences that come with it.  On the flip side there are those who make great choices.  There are students who not only want to see change happen in their generation they want to be that catalyst for it.  There are students who choose to live a life of character and sacrifice.  These are not just students in the church these are students who have a heart for the hurting, broken and forgotten people of generations past.

I so strongly believe that students are not only the future but they are now and they can make a difference and they are making a difference.  They are not the lost generation but if anything they are the generation who has the greatest potential to bring people together of different backgrounds, cultures and differences.  They have more tools at their disposal, they have more technology at their disposal and I truly believe they are about being real and transparent and forgiving.

Have you given a teenager a chance?  You may just find that you can learn from them.  You may just find that they become your friend.

Check out this video of a girl of this generation who is trying to make a difference.

Teen Vogue

Irony…I heard about this on the radio and I have been thinking about this subject for a while and then a buddy of mine Kevin Murrell actually posted on this today from the same article.  Great minds think alike, or something like that.  I have been watching teenagers make poor choice after poor choice in their life and I wonder why?  I know I have made and continue to make poor choices in my life but why?  Why do we do that?  Why do we so desperately want to be accepted by people who in ten years probably won’t matter that much to us anyway?  Why is popularity and acceptance worth throwing away our integrity, character and in some cases our life?  Is what people think of us really that important?  Listen, I struggle with these same questions and I’m thirty years old.  I don’t know if that need or desire every really goes away.  Check out what Taylor Swift said in the article written on her in the latest Teen Vogue.

TV: Was country music popular in your hometown?
TS: Not at all. The kids at school thought it was weird that I liked country—they’d make fun of me. Junior high was actually sort of hard, because I got dumped by this group of popular girls. They didn’t think I was cool or pretty enough, so they stopped talking to me.

TV: And then in the ninth grade, you signed a song-writing deal, moved to Nashville, and here you are. Did you ever see those girls again?
TS: Actually, I did! I played a hometown show about a year into my career, and they showed up, wearing my T-shirts and asking me to sign their CDs. It was bittersweet, because it made me realize that they didn’t remember being mean to me and that I needed to forget about it, too. And really, if I hadn’t come home from school miserable every day, maybe I wouldn’t have been so motivated to write songs. I should probably be thanking them!
More to come on this later…