Have you ever been exposed to one of those moms? When we started homeschooling our daughter years ago, I ran into quite a few of them. You know, the mom who can homeschool eleven children in different grades. Of course, most of them have college degrees by the age of sixteen. She also makes all of their clothes, helps on the family organic farm and grinds her own grain to make flour for her homemade bread. I mean really…makes her own flour!
Or maybe you have seen the Christian variety of the perfect mom. Her kids can quote long passages of scripture from memory, always make great choices, have done service projects that received national awards and hold hands as they skip perfectly scrubbed into the church building. You on the other hand, may just feel a miracle has happened if you pull up only thirty minutes late for church services and your kids didn’t try to kill each other on the way into the building.
Role models are problematic. Ask Disney. I would imagine they spend a lot of time, money and effort identifying talented young people who also fit the Disney clean-cut image. Fast forward a few years after discovery and many of these same young people are behaving in ways that have parents screaming at Disney for exposing young children to such terrible role models.
by Tony Perkins tells the stories of eleven young people who in the author’s view made a strong stand for God.
We recently visited our daughter who is studying abroad in Germany. At dinner time, we noticed something interesting. As we entered a restaurant that was nearly empty and asked for a table, we were politely told there were no tables as they were all reserved. Our daughter would promise them we would eat quickly, and a table would magically become open. As we looked at the reservation times that had denied us a table, they were often several hours in the future.
If you talk to the average teen involved in school and church, you will usually hear about their interest and even passion for issues of social justice. Now back in your day, you may have been interested in some of the same problems of the world. You may even now volunteer in an attempt to make a positive difference. You in fact may actually be more passionate and knowledgable about some of the social justice issues than even the most passionate teen.