Who is to blame? Do we really understand what is affecting our young people in society? There is the peer pressure which we all understand but there is the social pressure which is indeed a major cause of the problems the youth are facing.
To say that the youth in our nation face many problems is not to reveal anything new. Every generation of youth has faced problems. Everywhere we see the young confused, frustrated, involved in riots, rebellion against authority, steeped in crime and the age is characterized by suicide.
Those who have the responsibility of caring for the young are often guilty of sinning against the very ones for whom they have the watch care. A child is not born into the world wicked, evil and delinquent. He learns to be that way. He is taught to become that way. It does not come from within himself.
Experience with young people over the past many years convinces me that many are fine, strong, serious and well-intentioned Christians. True, even some of these are misled by others into ways that are not for the child of God. But there are those who shall stand for the faith as much as any adult.
We who are older need to consider more closely the problems of the young and work for them and with them to overcome them rather than simply hope that everything will work out all right.
Let’s locate some of the present day sources of problems affecting the young people.
1. The Home
The number one source of youth’s problems is the home. Where there ought to be security, love, provision, guidance, standards, discipline, hope and example, there is often just the opposite. The proverb, “Train up a child in the way that he should go," is primarily directed to parents. “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” is the medicine needed (Ephesians 6:4). Parents are too busy making money, reliving their own youth, and having a good time to be parents.
Children learn disrespect for authority in the home. It carries into the school, against government, against God.
2. Parents
It is rather difficult for a child to grow up with stability when the two people the child loves most hate and despise each other, and show it. Children that come from divided homes suffer all kinds of maladjustment, unhappiness, confusion, insecurity, and build resentment and frustration.
3. The Media
There is no doubt the harmful effects of radio and television has on the youth. Freedom of the press has been so abused as to include every kind of glamorization of sin. Pornography has become a present-day rage. The movies appeal to the young with all manner of vile and corrupt pictures. The addiction to television has about destroyed the thinking capacity of many people. What we think comes more from what we see than any other one source. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
4. Schools
Problems are caused for the young by the schools. While many can credit their teachers with a large measure of their personal success, many others can credit their teachers with their problems also. Morality is scorned, drug use is prominent, peer pressure is detrimental, and so often the social events are designed to promote the worldliness that the Scripture condemns, such as drinking, dancing, lasciviousness, etc.
5. Churches
The churches have become worldly and the world has become churchy. But where you would expect to find solutions to the problems facing the young, you often find another source of problems. Men have loved their churches, creeds, doctrines, power, money, etc. more than the revealed will of God.
6. The Government
The government must assume some blame for the problems of the youth. The ambitious and unscrupulous politicians have so fouled up much of the business of the nation that the young are “turned off” from being responsible citizens. The greed, graft, and personal gain of the nation’s leaders have set a terrible example before the young. Power, popularity, and profit have dominated the careers of governmental leaders.
7. Permissiveness and Tolerance
It is the responsibility of Christian parents to make sure that their young people know the difference between these sinful ways of the world and the way of Christ. Permissiveness and tolerance toward such things is going to cause many young people to degrade themselves and so stain their hearts and lives that only hell can burn away their evil.
Finally
Problems, problems, problems everywhere in our nation. Indeed problems. Distressing to consider them, isn’t it? Young people need the love, guidance, training, discipline and security that those who are older are obligated to provide. Once given those things it is up to them to walk accordingly. It is not enough to simply tell the young, “Don’t, don’t, don’t.” There must be the provision for the good that they can and should do. The problems are too big for the inexperienced and untrained youth to handle alone. Be a “solution,” not a “source” of problems. Yes you can do something. The onus is on you. THAT IS WHY YOU ARE A MAN.
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