Moments with Teenagers and Adolescents

Jarlath Uche Opara

Welcome back from school after months of studious academic session. To parents you have a lot to deal and contend with. It isn’t strange except otherwise you would want to be strange yourself by living a lie of your Teenage and adolescent years.

We all passed through these stages and possibly made our mistakes however terrible. But the instinct of motherhood or fatherhood wouldn’t allow us to sit and watch ours go same route, the simple reason we try to nib any semblance of what resembles our years of Teenage and adolescence cut off by fire or by force in the life of our children.

The truth is, not every thing about their lives and displays needs casting and binging.

No amount of prayer would stop a teenager or an adolescent from experiencing all the biological reactions, emotional surge, tension and temptation that hang around this phase of life. We all passed through them, the validation of our healthy status as growing lads.

Life comes in circles, the more it seems to be changing, the more it remains the same.

They take after us in physical appearance, mental endowment, character coloration etc why do you think they wouldn’t toe our path in expressing their emotions, which of course they got traces, traits and bits of them from us their parents?

However, we should be deliberate about guiding them through with love, patience, accepting the reality of the challenges, the riotous moments, the assertiveness, the drive an obsessive desire to yield to such emotional build up.

This is the most difficult period of their lives. Both for them and their parents. They see life very differently from the views of their parents. The have this false or rather ballooned impression of their worth, which if not well guided will railroad them into hurts and scorch that would either disfigure or detail them for life.

This phase doesn’t require force. If one applies force as parents one muddles things and may at worst case scenario lose them.

This has been the sad reality of many parents who probably thought they could clobber them into submission without knowing that, the person they want to clobber is like a crisp, a dry stick, any unusual forces breakes them into useless pieces without forming or guiding them.

It is a moment of dealing with them with love, care, support, guidance, laying the cards of your experiences on the table and not giving them that holier than thou attitude of living in your time a life devoid of teenager’s or adolescent’ addictions, distractions and temptation.

To my young lovely teenagers and adolescents. I have been there. I can relate with the riotous thoughts hitting each others in your mind. I can relate with the urge to experiment and explore. I can relate with the obsessive feelings to yield to the impulsive biological reactions pushing you ,sometimes with crazy thoughts to have a shot at.

I was there and your parents were there too. What you need is not to succumb to the sizzling urge to indulge them ,rather to muster the courage through self control to remain decent.

In your moments of emotional crossroads, when it appears you are getting close to your elastic limit think about Maria Goretti who lived in purity and vowed to uphold it even at the expense of her life.

“Maria Teresa Goretti (Italian: [maˈriːa teˈrɛːza ɡoˈretti]; 16 October 1890 – 6 July 1902) was an Italian virgin martyr of the Catholic Church, and one of the youngest saints to be canonized.[1] She was born to a farming family. Her father died when she was nine, and the family had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis. She took over household duties while her mother and siblings worked in the fields
.One afternoon, Alessandro, the Serenellis’ 20-year-old son, made sexual advances to her. When she refused to submit to him, he stabbed her 14 times. She was taken to the hospital but she died while forgiving him”.( culled from Wikipedia )

She was deliberate about it, you too can. It isn’t a rocket science, it is about being intentional and relying on God for help.

These following tips understated may help you navigate through the challenges of your Teenage or adolescent age

1) Learn to confess your struggle with sexual thoughts and temptations.

2).Trust Christ as Savior and Lord to help you in your struggles

3) Be filled with the Holy Spirit and yield daily to his prompting

4) Remember the basics of staying close to God by reading your Bible and other spiritual books

5 ) Restrict what you allow your eyes to see. Flee from suggestive and compromising skits and clips

Do all these, my assurance is ,certainly the storm of your Teenage and adolescent years wouldn’t consume you.

Goodluck as you remain decent and obedientl!

Jarlath Uche Opara Jarlathuche@gmail.com