Being a teen AND a Christian

[7ruth]

Very hard to do at times. Be a follower of Christ though, live through his teachings day to day. Sure some might ridicule you, but God will bless when they do.

 

[Faithful4Christ]

Amen to that lol. I agree, being 15 and being faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is at times hard. There are so many bad influences at highschool, I believe this is where Satan spends most of his time, and so many people become corrupted. But Jesus has given me the strength to overcome these sinful things and I am enormously greatful for it. My true friends, although not religious, are very kind and thoughtful and I believe God wants me to teach them about His love and mercy but I don't know how.. I'm praying desperately on how to tell them; on how to show them the way. With the rapture not to far away, or so I believe, I really want to show them His glory so that they won't be left behind. It's hard but I know He will help me accomplish this. With faith, patience, and the Lord annything is possible.

 

[7ruth]

But Jesus has given me the strength to overcome these sinful things and I am enormously greatful for it.

Consider yourself lucky. I have fallen in to almost everything at school, whether its drugs or impurites I always some how manage to slip up :verysad

My true friends, although not religious, are very kind and thoughtful and I believe God wants me to teach them about His love and mercy but I don't know how.. I'm praying desperately on how to tell them; on how to show them the way. With the rapture not to far away, or so I believe, I really want to show them His glory so that they won't be left behind. It's hard but I know He will help me accomplish this. With faith, patience, and the Lord annything is possible.

Just amke sure your not doing it in an annoying way, nobody likes to be preached too. I will pray too.

 

[Blazin Bones]

We all fall in different ways truth, and it does help that when we try to reach others for the Lord, that we find ways that do not turn others away.

 

[Faithful4Christ]

Consider yourself lucky. I have fallen in to almost everything at school, whether its drugs or impurites I always some how manage to slip up :verysad

Im sorry to hear that. My advice is to find some friends who have nothing to do with such things. But I know thats a lot easier to say... Just remember, although He doesn't "enjoy" being there, God is always there if you "slip up." Pray for strength, and you will recieve it.

Corinthians 10:13

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

However, God will not just magically give you that way out...
I will be praying for you. God Bless

 

[7ruth]

Oh, well thanks


I have been doing good lately, resisting temptations and stuff. I got sooooo close to doing something horrible, I dont know I guess I just thought about the guilt and shame I would feel later because of sin against God, and I didnt think it was worth it. It feels really good now I hope I can keep it up

 

[Nick]

Oh, well thanks


I have been doing good lately, resisting temptations and stuff. I got sooooo close to doing something horrible, I dont know I guess I just thought about the guilt and shame I would feel later because of sin against God, and I didnt think it was worth it. It feels really good now I hope I can keep it up

I know how you feel. I had a similar situation recently where I thought of my guilt of disobeying God that I would feel after and decided not to do it. Satan is tempting, but God is more powerful.

 

[JeffShott]

Well, I live in the Bible belt, so I rarely ever get that "look". I'm sure I will a whole lot more next year when I go to HS, though.
I usually get the "look" when people find out that I am more of a practicing Christian rather than a just cultural one, like most teens here. I certainly spark religious discussions and debates far more often than most people I know, and I witnessing has become a hobby of mine.

However, I spend more of my time witnessing to Christian cult members (JW, Mormons, and occasionally the C's..) than people without a religion. Simply because there aren't many here. I have brought one person to Christ while I've been here, and have basically discredited the Mormon faith to two of my closest friends.

I'd say, that the hardest part of being a teen and a Christian, is resisting temptation. Temptation is strong and I'm usually not thinking straight when it hits me the hardest.. Lust is powerful, as is the need to seem cool. I probably tell a lot of jokes that aren't very Christian, and I am trying to clean out my previously very active sailor's mouth

It's a work in progress..

 

[Nick]

Good point about temptation.
It not only hurts your walk with God, but it also can hurt your 'Christian image', if you're wittnessing to non-Christians. Actions speak louder than words, often.

So it's importatn to try and get temptation reallly under control.


Here's another little story of mine:
A few years ago, my year/gender gorup at our youth group experienced a sudden burst of growth, with a whole lot of new people. At about the same time, we were struggling a lot with swearing. And I mean a lot. Usually people try to keep it under control when they're in church, well that didn't seem to happen at this time. It was really bad. Anyway, we read the bible a lot aobut this, prayed together a lot about it, and really tried hard not to do it. And you know what? Without us noticing until someone pointing it out, in 6 months we hardly sweared. It's a long process a lot of the time, but definately worth it. That was about 2 years ago. And we hardly still swear at all.

The Lord is good to those that love Him!

 

[ChattyMute]

Well, I live in the Bible belt, so I rarely ever get that "look". I'm sure I will a whole lot more next year when I go to HS, though.

I also live in the bible belt, and the only people I have seen who get the "look" are those who are not Christian.

 

[JeffShott]

Ya, I have to agree with you, Nick: swearing is a hard thing to stop cold turkey. I'll go months without regularly swearing, but then I'll start swearing without noticing what I'm even doing. It's scary how natural it can become.

And, ChattyMute, I know EXACTLY what you mean. I am guilty of giving that "look" to people that aren't Christians. But, most of the time, it's honestly due to shock. I mean, until recently, I had never met a Wiccan or Pagan before. Very interesting people. Good people too.

 

[Nick]

Ya, I have to agree with you, Nick: swearing is a hard thing to stop cold turkey. I'll go months without regularly swearing, but then I'll start swearing without noticing what I'm even doing. It's scary how natural it can become.

Yeah. Sometimes I'll have my really bad days, but mostly I'm pretty good now. Been a long process. I have a big problem with lust, though. Prayer in that area would be great.

I live in the Bible-belt of Sydney, but we're pretty multicultural down here so I come accross Mormons, JW's, Muslims, athiests etc. Just in smaller numbers than in other places.

 

[bigllama]

I think one of the biggest reasons why people give us 'the look' is that they have a inaccurate perception of Christians. I have a couple friends who imagined us to be led by old priests in white gowns, and were shocked to find out that I'm good friends with my youth pastor, and that I play hockey with the children's pastor at my church. They also think that church is like a boring sermon and we sing boring old hymns from 1782, when in fact, Church is also a great time of fellowship and interaction. And while we do sing worship, most of it is awesome contemporary worship.

And yeah, swearing is one of those things, easy to pick up, and extremely difficult to stop. I am very fortunate to have never had a problem with this, I went to a Christian school all my life where it wasn't tolerated. When I went to a public school last year, I was like WOW, these guys drop the f bomb almost every sentence!! I think one of the best things to do is surround yourself with Christian influence, and just correct each other every time you use profane language.

 

[Nick]

I think one of the biggest reasons why people give us 'the look' is that they have a inaccurate perception of Christians. I have a couple friends who imagined us to be led by old priests in white gowns, and were shocked to find out that I'm good friends with my youth pastor, and that I play hockey with the children's pastor at my church. They also think that church is like a boring sermon and we sing boring old hymns from 1782, when in fact, Church is also a great time of fellowship and interaction. And while we do sing worship, most of it is awesome contemporary worship.

And yeah, swearing is one of those things, easy to pick up, and extremely difficult to stop. I am very fortunate to have never had a problem with this, I went to a Christian school all my life where it wasn't tolerated. When I went to a public school last year, I was like WOW, these guys drop the f bomb almost every sentence!! I think one of the best things to do is surround yourself with Christian influence, and just correct each other every time you use profane language.

Welcome!

 

[Cheyenne K]

I live in New York, so it isn’t much to say “I’m Christian,†unless you explain what you mean by it. Most people here are Roman Catholic, and will say, “Yeah, I’m Catholic.†However, if you were to say, “I’m Born Again,†you would definitely get “the look.†Or if you were to explain exactly what you believed in. Here there are many people who consider themselves Christians who are also pro-choice, pro-homosexuality/homosexual marriage, pre-martial sex, etc. and are very liberal. If you happened to be a conservative Christian, you would very easily get the look, even by other “Christians.â€

I think one of the biggest reasons why people give us 'the look' is that they have a inaccurate perception of Christians. I have a couple friends who imagined us to be led by old priests in white gowns, and were shocked to find out that I'm good friends with my youth pastor, and that I play hockey with the children's pastor at my church. They also think that church is like a boring sermon and we sing boring old hymns from 1782, when in fact, Church is also a great time of fellowship and interaction. And while we do sing worship, most of it is awesome contemporary worship.

Definitely. Being most people here are Catholic and most Catholic churches here are quite large, my non-theistic friends who were once religious Catholics were shocked to find out how small our congregation was, that we sung hymns and contemporary music (not just the choir), and actually read from the bible. They were even more shocked to find out we actually talked about biblical things during youth group and how I was friends with the elders, pastors, staff, etc. at the church.
But another reason I think is misunderstanding of the Scripture. They get their bits and pieces through people in the news who go wrongly to the extreme and take their view on it. If they were to read the Bible and put all of the bits and pieces together, they would find the meaning to be totally different.

And yeah, swearing is one of those things, easy to pick up, and extremely difficult to stop. I am very fortunate to have never had a problem with this, I went to a Christian school all my life where it wasn't tolerated. When I went to a public school last year, I was like WOW, these guys drop the f bomb almost every sentence!! I think one of the best things to do is surround yourself with Christian influence, and just correct each other every time you use profane language.

I have a big issue with swearing. I’m trying to break it. It bothers me because I happen to think swearing makes a person sound very unintelligent when there are so many beautiful words in the English language. It’s been something I have unfortunately picked up though. But between me trying to stop as it is and my mom telling me I would get punished every time I said something profane, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tone it down soon.