Sacrificing the Blessing

    

     It's a common mistake that young people make. Sacrificing what they never knew to be a blessing, but only viewed as an unnecessary wall between them and freedom. I am not talking about soft choices. I am talking about the hard-core breaks that many young people make with their parents' "hard-core rules" in order to experience life "in the real world". That is all a matter of opinion. The real world is the same to everyone, yet different in the way it is viewed.

     One prominent problem that young people face due to their rebellion is underage alcoholism. Please don't take these statistics lightly. It is serious. Many young, young boys and girls are exposed to the uses of alcohol and are often pressured into trying it. Before long, an addiction erupts.

• In 2015, 7.7 million young people ages 12–20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month.
• 5.1 million young people reported binge drinking (for males 5 or more drinks and for females 4 or more drinks on the same occasion within a few hours) at least once in the past month.²
• 1.3 million young people reported binge drinking on 5 or more days over the past month.²

National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

     One thing that the Institute doesn't touch on is the side-affects that many, including legal adults, experience after even mild alcohol addictions. This includes heart disease, liver disease, and various forms of cancers. 

     The common term that many young people think, but don't say, is that the world is a cool place to learn about who you are. Many believe that they can find themselves by dabbling in all of the world's pleasures. However, embracing the world with no moral absolutes or boundaries leads to moral failure. As a young person, this can ruin your life if you reach this point when you believe there is no turning back. 

     Personally, one thing I can't understand is the young person that presses against their parents' standards while craving more and more of what the world has to offer. Being protected as a young person isn't a shield for the world, it's a shield for you. While the pleasures that come from worldly music, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and a lifestyle of immodesty and immoral living are pleasurable in the moment, they reap you nothing but harm. They destroy your possibilities as a capable and successful adult, and rob you of the valuable months and years wasted that could have bettered you. However, thanks be to God, He doesn't give us only one chance to do the right thing. 

     Perhaps what angers me most about the culture I live in today is the lukewarm state we are in. Let me just say one thing to get this started. Do not claim Christ on your Facebook or on your T-shirt if you are not claiming Him in everything you say, do, and think every single day. Don't claim Christ if you live immorally. That is not the witness that Christ needs on this earth. What the unsaved are seeing on social media sites are supposed "Christians" posing with a beer bottle, or embracing homosexual lifestyles. If you are not familiar with the Bible's stance on alcohol review Proverbs 31:1-9 and the story of God's view on the homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). These are only two pressing issues in today's culture, but the references themselves set the standards for many other related cultural issues. 

     Next point: let's be honest and modest for a minute. Men and women. Yes, I said men. While there are various opinions to be had on this topic, I'll express mine here. I'll let you think on it. 

Problems with immorality stem from earlier issues with immodesty. Unfortunately, both men and women struggle with body image which leads to them exposing their body in order to keep up with the trends. Gentlemen, I as a lady, have no desire to see your pecks in public. As a woman, it angers me that women's eyes are given that much respect. Ladies, you are doing the men no favor exposing your derriere in public or almost everything out on a beach wearing daisy dukes and the most revealing bikini's on the market. 

     While my original forethought was that women are objectified and are made to glorify men with their outward beauty, I came to realize that we women are responsible for giving men this  slightly altered impression. If we want more respect, we must change the trend. You can dress tastefully while trendy and still respect men with your beauty. Embracing cultural norms only serves to leave issues we complain about unchanged. I agree with many women that argue that men should give women more respect. If that is true, then we women owe them the respect of what they see with their eyes. We are giving them the wrong impression of womanhood. Women are people with spiritual purpose, not objects for display only. If you are a Christian and disagree, please evaluate what the scripture says about modesty in Romans 12:2, 1 Timothy 4:8, and 1 Timothy 2:9 (read the texts surrounding these references to grasp the context). These are only a few of them, but they will get you started. 

     If you are a young person and questioning your parents' authority on these issues, reevaluate your worldview. Where will your desires lead you if you are permitted to "try it out for a while"? Are you certain that any of these options out there will lead you to personal success as a person or as a Christian? I am not telling you to adopt your parents' worldview and live in their shadow. Take what they have taught you and expand it. Use it to evaluate the world's definition of living and what course you need to take in your life.

     I am sharing these thoughts with you as I am extremely burdened for my generation. I am a sinner, just like anyone else, but Jesus is the Lord of my life. That's the difference and I want others to be able to say that as well. I want others to look at me and not just see a shell of a Christian that wears Christ on their shirtsleeve. Instead, I want Christ to envelope me to the point that there is room for nothing else in my life. I want the same thing for every other young person walking the streets. Every person that thinks that their life is worth nothing, needs to know that they have another chance before they draw their last breath.

     These issues I have named are current prevalent issues that are often overlooked because they are so common. Why leave the common as common? Just because it is accepted, should it be accepted? Why do you accept it? I challenge you as one Christian to another, or even as a Christian to an unbeliever. If you want to change the problems, address them and live out the change in your own lives to be a witness to others. Don't talk about it, discuss it, and get angry about it. Fight on your knees, fight as a witness, and fight it with a life worth living right. 

Don't sacrifice the blessing of salvation, of life, a year, another day, or even another breath.