It's not easy being the age that I am and looking how I do. I am almost twenty years old, but because I look younger than that I am never treated as an adult. Many adults like to say that I am still young and I am still a child but by law I am an adult and I have been acting like an adult for a lot longer than some adults have been acting like adults. Everything that has been told to me by adults about how to treat one another. I have been told not to judge others, to respect adults, to listen to adults, to treat others the way I want to be treated, and when there's a conflict to go to the person and work it out. This all is great for us to learn but when I finally reached adulthood this is not the way that other adults act toward me.
No matter how much I have grown up or how much I have learned or have to say, I am treated like a child. People tell me that I am still a child and that I will always be a child but adults, think back to the time when you were twenty years old. You waited so long to be an adult and you finally get there just to have everyone tell you that you are a child. Every time someone told you that you were not an adult, your heart sank a little more each time. I have a voice just like you do and what I have to say is just as important as someone who is in their 40's or 50's. We are told how we should feel, and what we should say when really we are all on our own paths with the Lord. You have no idea where I am in my walk with Christ and it is wrong for other adults to pretend like my faith is the faith of an small child. I have been walking with the Lord for over fourteen years which is longer than some of those who judge me.
I am not here to scold you but rather to make you aware of how you treat young adults. Christian adults who continue to preach things that they do not put into practice are pushing young adults further and further away from God. Recently there have been cases where someone disagreed with something that I shared and rather than coming to me, turned to my parent. I have a voice of my own and the words that I express are words that come from my mouth not the mouth of my parents. We are told to turn to our brother and try to solve problems but really why should we? If the adults around us do not give us that chance then how can they sit there are preach it.
I have learned a lot from all of my experiences and luckily it has made me a stronger Christian but I have friends who have turned away from their faith because of adults. The people that we look up to treat us as if we know nothing and as if we have nothing of value to say. We are told over and over to respect adults and our authority figures but I have been both an adult and an authority figure and I have rarely been respected. It is both hurtful and angering to me that I am not being treated the way that I am expected to treat other Christians and other people.
However there is something else that I need to remember, which is:
"Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." 1 Timothy 4:11-16
Though I am angry and though this does not always seem fair to me, I cannot get stuck in this angry thought process. God has more for me to do regardless of what others think about me or how they treat me. I have to keep myself living a God focused life and sometimes things are going to bother me like this and I am sure that I am not alone in this frustration but we all have to remember that at the end of the day we serve God not each other. Adults, please take this to heart and the next time you address a young adult think about what I have said and remember to show respect. We look up to you for guidance but if you have no respect then how can we learn.
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