A Teenager Who Made a Difference
Miles Seaborn
2 Chronicles 34; 2 Kings 22
INTRO. An airline pilot has defined flying as ''hours and hours of absolute boredom and monotony mixed with a few moments of sheer panic.''
Now when we think about raising teenagers the opposite of that definition seems to be appropriate. ''Hours and hours of sheer panic mixed with a few seconds of boredom and monotony.''
But for Jeanne and I and many other parents teenagers became our favorite years of family life.
One of the things I appreciate about teens is that they are too impressed with theory, they much prefer reality - real life people who face real-to-life issues. Teens! What they need are models that they can admire, not just a lot of truth that they can memorize.
Teens respond much more positively to someone in the Bible who obeyed God rather than being told to do so. That basic trait of young people has led me to uncover an obscure chapter in the Old Testament where a young person literally changed the life of a nation. What makes this person's life so interesting is that he did most of his courageous acts while he was still in his teens. His name if Josiah. And two separate chapters tell of his story. 2 Chr. 34 and 2 Kings 22.
Now the world in which Josiah was born was a world a lot like ours, a troubled world of confusion, murder, warfare - in fact, a civil was going on. There was sexual sins, there wee abusive acts, there was political intrigue and there were assassinations. In brief, the whole nation and its whole life was on a spiritual downer. It was the pits from the word go.
People hated God, or at best they ignored Him altogether. It was Josiah's father, Amon and grandfather Manasseah who had led the people down the path of sin and suffering.
Let's look at a little snatch of the times in which Josiah was born. Turn to 2 Kings 21 and look at verse 9, ''And yet they did not listen (meaning they did not listen to God's Word) and Manasseh seduced ...
Miles Seaborn
2 Chronicles 34; 2 Kings 22
INTRO. An airline pilot has defined flying as ''hours and hours of absolute boredom and monotony mixed with a few moments of sheer panic.''
Now when we think about raising teenagers the opposite of that definition seems to be appropriate. ''Hours and hours of sheer panic mixed with a few seconds of boredom and monotony.''
But for Jeanne and I and many other parents teenagers became our favorite years of family life.
One of the things I appreciate about teens is that they are too impressed with theory, they much prefer reality - real life people who face real-to-life issues. Teens! What they need are models that they can admire, not just a lot of truth that they can memorize.
Teens respond much more positively to someone in the Bible who obeyed God rather than being told to do so. That basic trait of young people has led me to uncover an obscure chapter in the Old Testament where a young person literally changed the life of a nation. What makes this person's life so interesting is that he did most of his courageous acts while he was still in his teens. His name if Josiah. And two separate chapters tell of his story. 2 Chr. 34 and 2 Kings 22.
Now the world in which Josiah was born was a world a lot like ours, a troubled world of confusion, murder, warfare - in fact, a civil was going on. There was sexual sins, there wee abusive acts, there was political intrigue and there were assassinations. In brief, the whole nation and its whole life was on a spiritual downer. It was the pits from the word go.
People hated God, or at best they ignored Him altogether. It was Josiah's father, Amon and grandfather Manasseah who had led the people down the path of sin and suffering.
Let's look at a little snatch of the times in which Josiah was born. Turn to 2 Kings 21 and look at verse 9, ''And yet they did not listen (meaning they did not listen to God's Word) and Manasseh seduced ...
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