So tonight I was driving home from a young adult group i've been going to when I can, and had the radio on one of the local stations... The announcer lady was rambling about some situation that apparently has been on the news regarding a food fight that occurred at a school recently. She went on to talk about how it was unfair the way the school leaders handled it and how the punishment was a little silly... which from what I heard, I somewhat agree with. BUT, what really caught my attention was at the end of her rant how she closed out by saying... "You know what? It's not a big deal. They're JUST kids! I mean, they could be doing a whole lot worse!"
Um... "JUST kids"? And, they "could be doing a whole lot worse"???
Okay lady... great, thanks. So are you saying in other words you expect me to be doing drugs, sneaking around, having sex and being rebellious...? Because I mean, after all, "that's what kids do"... right?
See, the problem with kids today (wow, that sounded like something a grandparent would say ha) is that most adults have such low expectations for them that they never even see the potential they have inside of them! What's crazy is as much as this belittling mindset should make us young people upset and want to prove them wrong... We seem to have bought into it. We play along, using it as our excuse saying, "hey, they're right! we're 'just kids', so let's goof off and pretend what we do doesn't matter and we don't know any better! after all, they're the ones who said it!"
I confess.
I've used that excuse. You know why? Cause it was easy. It was a cop out. It justified my irrational, rebellious decisions and even sprinkled "blessing" on them because that's what the world expected! As much as I tried to convince myself that this mindset was normal and just the way things were... deep down, I knew it was wrong. I knew I was meant for more than this condescending compromise... but who was stepping out to say so?
1 Timothy 4:12 says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young, but set an example for believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
Dangg. That's a pretty high calling! It straight up calls us out on this exact topic saying "don't you dare think that just because you're young you can skate out of your important role by doing stupid things!" Snap.
While I'm frustrated by many adult's belittling mindset, i'm also frustrated with myself for buying into it. See, because we've bought into it, we feed their reasons for saying we're "just kids". Instead of proving them wrong... we live out their low expectations. Disastrously.
It's been said that you teach people how to treat you. In that case, we've got some work to do.
God specifically says that, as young people, we've got something AMAZING to offer right now... whatever age we are!
I say, it's time we prove their low expectations wrong.