I read an article in the newspaper today that was about a new study on teens. It says "a sizable number of teens make take chances because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake." The doctors running the study were surprised, but I'm not. Children are told that this life is all that there is, that it doesn't matter what they do with their bodies, and that they have no value because they were not made in the image of God, they simply descend from the species that survived and beat out the others. Why should we expect them to have hope? What are they supposed to hope in, or for? The article didn't answer that. They did say that pediatricians could try to figure out which kids were most fatalistic and try to help prevent risky behaviors.
Here's what I say, though I am not a doctor. Tell kids that they are valuable. Every moment, every day, through your words and your actions. Tell them that their lives are worth living. Give them something to live for, something to hope in. Treat kids as though they can succeed and will. Unless you believe that all people are image bearers of God and therefore are innately precious, this is hard to do. Unless you believe that Jesus Christ shed his blood because of our worth to his heart, it will be hard to do. It's hard to love people well even when you do believe this.
That is all I have to say to the N&O, I suppose.
On a different note, here is my favorite classified from today's paper:
currently listening to: Black Tables, Other Lives
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