Do You Understand Your Teens?

If you have been in youth ministry for over twenty minutes you have probably tried to figure out where some of your teens are coming from. You might have said after the first twenty minutes and meeting with a few of your teens, “I have really messed up; I’m in the wrong ministry.” Do not fear, you are not alone in those feelings. Understanding teens is often difficult. It might do you well to sit down and try to analyze your teens to help you better understand them.

1. Teens have a new set of temptations in front of them when they reach the teen years. II Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee also youthful lusts….” We are living in an age when Satan is harder at work than ever. Just about the time you see spiritual progress in one of your youth oftentimes they will fall into temptation. They are faced with sexual temptations like never before. I tell our teens, “You don’t smoke, drink, or do drugs. You don’t use bad language and you’re not disrespectful. Because you do not do those kinds of things, Satan will attack you in other ways and that usually is sexual. God made us sexual people so Satan will use that for his benefit.”

2. Lifetime sins begin in the teen years. Genesis 8:21 says, “And the Lord smelled a sweet savior; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Job 20:11 says, “His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.” I imagine that most of us as adults could look back on our youth and think of things that we wish we could take back or do over. Most are not spiritually mature as teens.

3. Teens are depending on you. Proverbs 22:6 states, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” As a youth minister, you just might be the strongest force in the lives of many of your teens. Many do not have great, or even good home situations.

Being a youth leader is an awesome responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly. Bottom line, just roll up your sleeves and go after it, Satan will.

Article Source: http://youth-ministry-resources.com

Al Millergren is co-founder of Teen Life Ministries; www.teenlifeministries.com

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