I have been toying with how I would be able to start this writing related to the situation of our young people - the adolescents. You see i happen to be a secondary recipient of an information about a mother that almost died after giving birth to her child. She went home after the delivery. Her health had complications that made her go back to the hospital helplessly carried by someone since she was on hemorrhagic condition. She almost died.
In the same day that i got this story, I learned from an office colleague that she survived the weekend joining her group of friends in a bar packed with young people (adolescents) doings stuffs like wild dancing, torrid kissing, drinking hard liquor,etc. Feeling older in that crowd of young people, she felt the discomfort yet cannot escape the reality with how these adolescents make use of their leisure time.
I have my young nephews and a niece too. I wonder at times how they made use of their time with friends or when they are outside of the house. I was even in panic when my only adolescent niece asked my permission that she would bring her boyfriend in the house and introduce him to me. Well I could not imagine the hustle of feelings growing and boiling inside.
Reality bites and strikes. We have so many at hand regarding their engagements. I feel helpless at times. I see them around everyday. I also work in a company that operates a food chain where they gather, eat, talk and laugh loudly.
Their energies are unimaginable and beyond compare. "When I was younger" ...oh ...I would rather not use those words. It makes them scream to hear that line. They don't like the idea of comparing their generation to any of the adult's.
What is really my point here?
1. Fear. To be honest, being an adult, I fear so much of consequences of choices. I have been through the ordeal of wrong choices that led me to regrets. A lot of those choices, I could not go back anymore. Though it is just recently that I allow wider and broader way of looking at things. But before, it was more of centering and focusing on myself, the pain and blaming of others excluding myself that made the choice in the first place.
2. The Sacrifice of Parenting. How come majority of our young people have not really and truly grounded themselves to the values and virtues of family? How come they go out their own way accumulating values that led them to ruin? How come they become where they are, like those that linger in the bar that my friend went to one weekend? How come a lot of them may not have really sensed the essence of the sacrifice of a mother's life on a "50-50" condition giving birth of any of them like that of the struggling young mother i related earlier?
3. Longing for Love. We all need love. Though Love is so available, they don't find it. Young people long so much for this since a lot of them don't have the strong basis and foundation of Love as expected to exude in the family. They search for it in wrong places associating physical liking and upsurges of emotion in infatuation as that. They restlessly pursue love and feel that it is not within their grasp.
You see, I had the chance being with groups of young people when i worked as a Guidance counselor in a private sectarian high school. I imagined while talking with them, the kind of parents that brought them up. Is it safe to associate character of these adolescents to the kind of parents they have?
Lastly, it made me cry (with tears of joy) seeing some of them with grounded values and it made me cry also (with a pang of pain and sadness) when I see them so lost. And so, I thought, this would simply just be about our young people. I realize that I will have to address the parents too...
First I say (from the heart) to the young people of today :
Regardless of the state of your family, with or without your parents to guide you, you have a choice as to how you would manage your life. It will so much affect the kind and quality of life you will have. If you will just focus on the fancy and fun of your life now, you will reap the harvest equivalent to what you sow. Despite the agony and challenges of your young life, again, you have a choice. And...please do not separate God from your life or blame Him for anything that happen to you...I may not be able to present every answer to all your questions now but you will understand soon.
To the parents :
From experience being a counselor and observations from my siblings' families, it is not easy to have an adolescent in the family. You may not be seen outright by them with your sacrifices, but just continue and not give up on them. Continue to be present in school meetings. To be there at home first before they come home. To be available when they need to talk to you. To take time to bring them if not force them to join you in Church (heheh rather harsh ...). To simply be there for them...:-)
But then, some of you may say "I am not home since i work far". That's kind a hard ha...to be honest...:-0 Just be there and be available through the internet (hahahhha no choice) for chatting... Lastly, please don't stop praying for them. They truly need a great deal of help.
Oh my ...i could cry at the thought imagining them lost and no one to go to when they need you but then...please pray for them.
My heart goes so much to them...:-)
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