On Your 13th Birthday
(Jet-lag has rendered me too brain dead to think today. Here is something I shared with a friend recently that I meant to put on here eventually.)
Wow. Congratulations on getting to the teen years… I guess. They will be some of the most memorable of your life for a lot of good things and, unfortunately, a lot of awkward things. Just remember, this too shall pass.
As I look back on when I was where you are at, I remember noticing how all the teens I knew—even if they were nice people—become full of themselves as they got older. They thought they knew better than all the adults around them, especially their parents. I promised myself I would not do that. I don’t think I was completely successful. As I made it through the teen years and past them, I realized that humility was a good goal to have. No one is as smart or wise as a teenager thinks they are. Even adults aren’t much wiser; it’s just that some of them are humble enough to know their limits. I think that is what the Bible means when it says “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We need to always remember that God is smarter and wiser than we will ever be, and we need to trust and rely on Him.
So my best advice to you, as you enter this stage of life, is to make humility your habit. Don’t think that just because you are getting smarter that you are smarter. Remember that God will always have the best path in mind for you, and that the people he has chosen to help you find that path are your parents.
Beyond that: have fun, enjoy the life you have been given, don’t give in to the negative, irrational sad thoughts that teens are plagued with, realize that—even though it feels like it—the whole world is not always watching you and thinking about you, and… be nice to your siblings—you may still want them to be your friends when you are done being a teenager.
Wow. Congratulations on getting to the teen years… I guess. They will be some of the most memorable of your life for a lot of good things and, unfortunately, a lot of awkward things. Just remember, this too shall pass.
As I look back on when I was where you are at, I remember noticing how all the teens I knew—even if they were nice people—become full of themselves as they got older. They thought they knew better than all the adults around them, especially their parents. I promised myself I would not do that. I don’t think I was completely successful. As I made it through the teen years and past them, I realized that humility was a good goal to have. No one is as smart or wise as a teenager thinks they are. Even adults aren’t much wiser; it’s just that some of them are humble enough to know their limits. I think that is what the Bible means when it says “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We need to always remember that God is smarter and wiser than we will ever be, and we need to trust and rely on Him.
So my best advice to you, as you enter this stage of life, is to make humility your habit. Don’t think that just because you are getting smarter that you are smarter. Remember that God will always have the best path in mind for you, and that the people he has chosen to help you find that path are your parents.
Beyond that: have fun, enjoy the life you have been given, don’t give in to the negative, irrational sad thoughts that teens are plagued with, realize that—even though it feels like it—the whole world is not always watching you and thinking about you, and… be nice to your siblings—you may still want them to be your friends when you are done being a teenager.
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