Mediocrity, Toothless Roaring Monster ~ Continued

So my daughter ventures of on her first missionary trip. The objective was to connect with resident missionaries in the shanty towns of South Africa. They would interact/evangelize with the locals and provide VBS for the little ones. Out of a group of approximately 30 people my daughter, fourteen, was the youngest by two years. Many hinted to the fact that she might be to young or the trip to intense (physically and emotionally). I spoke it over with my daughter and in her words, “If I’m going to do this dad, I’m going all the way”.

Virgina Historical Society

I considered the advice of the skeptics; however, I began to ask myself when are you old enough for anything? Let me introduce you to George, David and Clara. George was born in 1732 and at the rip age of 11, his father past away. George was average in intelligence put determined. He applied himself in school and at 17 years old received his first job as Official Surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia. This was no boy’s job, for the next three years he would endure the life of a pioneer as he surveyed unmapped territories. David on the other hand, began his career at the age of ten in the open seas as a naval cadet of warship Essex. At the age of twelve he was given command over a captured ship. He task was to take the ship and its captured crew back to the United States. On the journey the captured British commander took issue with answering to a mere boy. He protested the fact and announced that he would go below deck to retrieve his pistol, which he was allowed to keep out of respect for his rank. With an authoritative voice, David proclaimed should he return with his weapon, he would be shot on sight and thrown overboard. Clara was a bit different in her early years. She was eleven years old, shy, timid and afraid of strangers to the point of hardly speaking. Everything changed when her brother fell from a barn roof and was seriously injured. With a sister’s love, she begged to care of her brother. To the surprise of many, including doctors, her nursing abilities came natural. The doctors eventually would allow her to be his sole caretaker. Later, she would become the nurse to her father’s hired hand and at seventeen a school teacher to forty students.

So what has changed today? Why have teenagers been reduced to valor acts of making beds and pumping gas for their parents? The answer perhaps is that today we view these crucial developmental years as a categories defined only by age and behavior. Unfortunately, this category has adopted a stigma of low expectations. This thinking would be foreign to George, David and Clara. Mediocrity has become common place, a refuge and ultimately a detriment. As parents we should move beyond the status quo thinking and begin to develop a culture, at least in our homes, of young competent, mature and productive teenagers. The mindset has been around so long that we don’t give it another thought and our young people don’t understand there is more to their adolescence years than what is being advertised to them (music, games, fashion, the opposite sex).

Do not get me wrong, I’m an advocate for allowing a child to enjoy their youth (in a positive matter). However, we must establish a transition for our teenagers if we are going to take them from surviving to thriving. We need to be their very best advocates. I heard someone once say, “If you don’t take an active role, someone will”. Set a list of “GREAT EXPECTATIONS” for your teen(s). A Buck List if you will. Get involved in nurturing that maturity and providing avenues of success that show your teen, yes you can. Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company stated, “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right” Like everything in life, expectations have consequences. We will discuss these “consequences” in part three of our series.