Millennials and teens get a lot of grief today.
“They feel entitled.”
“They have a hard time making decisions.”
“They want instant gratification.”
“T hey are not very motivated.”
Some of this may be deserved, but I also think the case could be made that there is nothing wrong with the younger generation that we haven’t done to them. We’re the ones who gave them trophies and ribbons for accomplishing nothing. We’re the ones who inflated their self-esteem without building it on anything of substance. We’re the ones who were helicopter parents who provided them everything and protected them from failure at every turn.
The younger generation though is also giving us great signs of hope. They dream really big dreams. They value authenticity. They don’t just want to talk about problems, they want to do something about them. They want to make an impact on a global scale. They are passionate about important causes and they will tackle issues with abandon. They want to work as teams and accomplish things together. Those are some things the body of Christ can and should get behind.
Compassion International, the Christian Ministry that sponsors needy children around the world, giving them, food, medicine, education, and the good news of Jesus Christ, announced last week that all available children to be sponsored in four countries, El Salvador, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Indonesia were snatched up by 50,000 millennials at this year’s Passion conference. That’s awesome. That’s the kind of thing that will change the world.
As we continue our Extreme Home Makeover, we are going to look at how to frame values for our teenagers, not just so they can be good little church members, or productive members of society, but so they can be world changers. We are going to learn today from the greatest teenager ever discussed in the Bible. His name was Daniel and he changed his world.