Dear 70’s/80’s child…

[a guest post by my friend Lindsay Brown]

Dear 70’s/80’s child,

Enough! I get it; you were beaten, neglected, starved and lived without (TV, computers, electronics; etc.) as a child. Strangely enough you want to remind us daily on how well you turned out despite your horrific childhood – With phrases like “I was beaten and therefore I have respect” and “I was sent outside to go make my own fun”.  I’m an 80’s child too, and yet I remember how much I hated hearing my parents complain about “the youth today! When we were young… ”.

Kids have different challenges. They have to go to school with the fear of being shot at; they can’t go outside and play because you are petrified they will be stolen. They can’t go out and find friends because we now live in a culture where play dates are necessary. They get ignored and shoved in front of the TV constantly because you are too busy with your phone/electronics, (That you hold onto as though you have to catch up on all the time you missed as a kid), and the levels of expectation at school are ridiculous. So your kids sit around waiting for you to help them organize, plan and figure it out. How about for just a second, we place ourselves in their shoes.

They learn new electronics with a speed that can rival any “techie” of our generation; we have kids who fight for what they believe in (just switch on the news). And kids who are still maintaining an ability to rise up in grades at school despite the hard lines of education. I know there are bad seeds, but there were bad seeds in our generation too, we are just too quick to forget. Kids learn from those around us, and I think we as adults (yes, we are the adults now) need to guide and direct those kids that are struggling. Not by force, but with love.

Laws that our generation have fought for, for good reason, such as spanking, starving and badgering children are in place because they are good. I know that if you logically thought about it you would agree. You however, seem to think that because you can’t spank your child that they can’t be disciplined or taught. On the contrary, children learn the best by model. If you start throwing a temper tantrum because your phone won’t start quick enough or if you disrespect that lady behind the counter because you aren’t getting your way… you got it, it’s coming back to haunt you. And then you are the one who gets mad when they speak to you in the same tone and manner as you graced others with when they don’t get their way. This very argument is a fine example of how people have been taught to perpetuate the problem.

How about WE… be the generation of change. The generation that stops complaining about our children and their lack of respect, discipline, and boredom, and be a generation that imparts important wisdom, love and discipline (in love) to our kids. I’m not talking about mommy cuddling, but I am talking about guiding and leading. Imagination in children has not changed since you and I were kids. How about we stop passing them off to anyone/anything else who can “entertain” them and teach them. I understand that life is hard and sometimes the TV seems like the only option for peace and quiet, but how about teaching them to learn how to help themselves. Teach them how to sew, so they can spend hours making dresses for their dolls. Teach them how to play solitaire so they can play on their own. And please stop complaining about all that you miss in the past and start enjoying the life you have created today, and maybe we can have kids that grow up happy to be a part of the future. I know there have been many before me who have said the same thing, but maybe we need to hear it again.

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 44

‘We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago…’ [verse 1]

i found this a difficult psalm to grab a lot from, but one thing that jumped out at me was that line at the beginning which is such a powerful line. it reminds me of a contradictionary line found in Judges which says:

‘After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.’ [Judges 2.10-13]

this psalm stresses the importance of story-telling – in the days of the early church before they had printed copies of the bible in their hands [and before even the priests had copied versions of what we now see as scripture] they had to rely on story-telling – we see this on many occasions in the book of Acts with Peter and Paul and Philip and Stephen among those who share the story of Jesus and see peoples lives transformed.

but it is on an even more intimate level in families where we see the importance of this. so as to avoid a generation growing up who have not heard of God or the things He has done. we have to continue to speak out the stories of what God has done in our lives.

in fact in the book of Revelations verse 10-11 it says, ‘For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.’

talking about how the enemy is ultimately defeated, it mentions that it is by the blood of the Lamb [what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross] and by the word of our testimony [the stories of what Jesus has done in and through us] which is so powerful – it means that these testimonies, these stories of how God is at work in and through our lives, have the power to defeat the enemy.

don’t stop telling the stories. don’t stop living them!

[To return to the Intro page and be connected to any of the other Psalms i have walked through before now, click here]