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Cause of teenage depression: Tonight a teenage boy about 18 or 19 years old with suicidal tendencies was being questioned

on television. He was crying and saying that the problem was that there was no one he could talk to about his problems. He was then followed by a girl of about the same age who was also crying and saying about the same thing. Then Pat Robertson came on and I realized I had switched into The 700 Club. Teenage suicide is getting a lot of publicity these days. They say it is increasing dramatically. What is the reason for it? I am sure there are many reasons and that they are complicated. Perhaps part of the problem is often that they feel alone and unloved and that they have no one to talk to. Yet I feel that the most important cause of all the teenage frustration and unhappiness in our society is the spiritual vacuum in which the teenagers find themselves immersed. The society gives them no spiritual guidance whatsoever. They find no guidance from parents, schools, churches or anywhere else. There are no good voices giving them good, intelligent, prudent, sound advice. We live in a foolish society and the advice and counsel of the foolish is everywhere. The Bible says that people are analogous to sheep in that sheep need shepherds and have an instinct to follow. People also have an instinct to follow. They find leaders and follow. If the leaders are foolish they follow them into foolishness. We live in a society where everyone is following the foolish into foolishness. All the voices that the teenagers are hearing are pointing in the wrong directions and deep down inside them they know it. That is what is so confusing and depressing. The voices are all pointing the way to foolishness and self-destruction and spiritual emptiness. The teenagers are sheep who have lost their way amongst moral uncertainties and confusion. They are drifting in a sea of foolishness, uncertainty, and confusion. They are living in a world that glamorizes pleasure, lust and hedonism. A voice recommending a way of discipline and moral principle is one that is never heard. If it were it would be laughed down very quickly. We live in a society in love with foolishness, a society which keeps paying and paying for that foolishness, but which continues stubbornly with the love affair.

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Your Child's Personality

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Determining Your Child's Personality Type Understanding Your Child's Personality Traits When Personality Differences Lead to Difficulties What Contributes to Personality Clashes Tips for Dealing With Personality Clashes
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Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?

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Kindergarten Readiness: Your Child's Emotions Kindergarten Readiness: Your Child's Fears Readiness for Kindergarten: Your Child's Mind Kindergarten Readiness: Reading Kindergarten Milestones
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Preparing for Adolescence

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Early Adolescence: Why It's Tough Understanding Sudden Changes Body Changes and Self-Care Peer Relationships and Identity Discovering Interests and Developing a Worldview
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Talking About Sex and Puberty

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Before the Talk: Dealing With Our Past What to Teach About Sex Talking About Sex and Puberty Talking to Your Kids About Sexual Abuse Next Steps / Related Information

Defining 'Successful Parenting'


by Tim Sanford Next Article in Series:

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The Real Job of Dads The Real Job of Moms How Much Validation and Nurturing? What Makes It Hard to Do Your Job Defining Success as a Parent Next Steps / Related Information
Many people believe every parent's job is to make sure his or her children turn out "right." Even though most of us don't quite know what that standard means, we feel obliged to meet it. But if it were true, it would mean God messed up. In Genesis we read about a place called the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect environment, a perfect "home." In this perfect place there were two perfect people God's children, Adam and Eve. Wouldn't that be nice to have perfect children? And there was a perfect God the perfect parent. There was also a rule: "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). You've probably heard the rest of the story. Adam and Eve chose foolishly, defying what God had told them. Our human decay and ultimate death are stark reminders of that wrong choice made by perfect people in a perfect environment with a perfect parent. So what did God do wrong? If He "trained them in the way they should go," why did Adam and Eve choose the other option? If Proverbs 22:6 is a guarantee of success for parents, why wasn't it a guarantee for the Author of the Book? Enter free will. I'm talking about a God-given freedom to choose part of being created in His image. Adam and Eve exercised it, and your teenagers exercise it today. "But I want them to turn out right," you say. Yes. I agree with you. But that's not your job. "But I want the best for them, for their sakes." I won't argue with that. But it's still not your job to make sure they do. If controlling your teenager isn't your job, what is? This article series will help answer that question. We need to figure out what your real calling is to help you stop doing what isn't your assignment. A blurry job description makes it easy to wander into the overcontrolling side of the delicate balance between control and influence. Your essential task depends on whether you're a mom or a dad. If that sounds like stereotyping, bear with me. I'm not talking about aprons and rolling pins and dragging cavewomen by the hair. I'm talking about doing what you tend to do best, and what your teen tends to need most from you.

Taken from Losing Control & Liking It, a Focus on the Family book published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Copyright 2009, Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Teenage Life Today

Category Rss Feed - http://article2008.com/rss.php?rss=250 By : Michael Howe


Submitted 2011-03-09 04:07:45

With the present technological developments we have now, youth have gotten more liberated. Having loads of free entry to data, movies and photos amongst others, it's indeed straightforward for them to be ready for their future if correctly guided by their parents.. But due to free access to these data from televisions, radios, prints, and now, the web, quite a lot of teenagers are in some way being uncovered to an environment which at their early age is not really ideal. Pornographic movies, footage and even articles which counsel having free sex with the other sex are very rampant all around the place. These, somehow dilute the mind of youngsters perceiving things which are not true to be true for them. Within the USA, in keeping with surveys frequently performed, youngsters are actively participating in free sex. In line with current studies, younger women lose their virginity at an early age of nine. This solely proves that the youth of right this moment is very affected by the what they see of their environment. Even older people believe that experiencing sex at an early age is quite regular and commonly accepted as a part of teenage life. The truth is, if a person reaches the age of eighteen with out experiencing even a single free sex, she or he shall be thought of an old fashioned people, others call them kill joy. With all these in thoughts, free sex in an early age notably throughout high faculties and faculty ranges is sort of easy to get. You just need to look for somebody to flirt with in a disco bar and have a few drinks, chit chat and decide to find an extra quite place. Though this example is now commonly accepted, still having free sex with someone, particularly those whom you have no idea, have to be avoided. But because of the ideas being instilled in the minds of the youth at this time, they now consider, even adults as nicely, that this is one of the right issues to do to be thought of as somebody normal. Youngsters have free entry to many concepts by means of the internet, together with pornographic videos, photos and articles, and since this is commonly seen, they perceive that that is already common and the fitting thing to do. We have now to reverse this as a way to save our technology from ethical decadence.

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