In Teaching Kids How to Make Friends, I shared how lonely this current generation of young people appears to be. This loneliness is leading to all sorts of serious problems including depression, suicide and substance abuse. Many children are thrust into environments with only one or two adults supervising ten to thirty children for most of their waking hours from birth until adulthood.
Some of those adults are wonderful, talented people who are doing their very best, but it’s almost impossible for a teacher to parent your child. Especially when they are also parenting the children of ten and sometimes many more other families. Sadly, most teachers really aren’t talented enough to do more than the minimum academic teaching they are required to do, much less add in things like teaching kids how to make godly friends.
This is one post series I never thought I would have to write. I remember having friends throughout my life. Some relationships were stronger and healthier than others perhaps, but I don’t remember particularly struggling to meet people and become friends with good, kind girls and guys.
Recently, I witnessed a group of adults telling some teens news they thought was great. From an adult perspective, it was wonderfully exciting news. As the news was shared, I watched as the teens clapped. They probably assumed it was expected, as the adults were cheering. The looks in most of their eyes told a much different story. The news made them uneasy and they doubted that it would indeed be positive for them personally. Yet, the adults around them missed the signals and continued chattering about how exciting it was.
In 
A few months ago experts found evidence that behind an average battle scene painted by a man named Vasari (who is actually famous for his writing, not art) is a work by Leonardo da Vinci. For centuries now, people have walked by this average mural not realizing a fabulous masterpiece had been painted over to create the current painting. Someone though saw something others missed and did the research to find the masterpiece hidden below what is obvious to the eye.