Hello Hivers of Hive-reachout community, I want to share an encounter I had with some teens sometime last year
I met these young girls and shared the message of Jesus with them, leading them to Christ. As I spent more time with them, I felt a deep sense of love and compassion, and I wanted to do more than just lead them to Christ.
So, I started a follow-up to get to know them better, inviting them over and having sessions with them. They shared a lot with me, and I did the same. What struck me hard was when one of them began to open up about her life and family.
She had gone through a lot - a series of traumatizing situations - and she was only 16. She had never experienced motherly love. Infact, love should be the last thing she had experienced after her mother's death when she was just three.
So what's the essence of this story;
It's that many young teenagers have faced things they shouldn't have. Many are trapped and broken on daily basis.
When you meet them, please show them love and help them out of their predicament. Don't criticize or worsen their situation. Instead, help them find hope in life again.
Tell them there's a beautiful future ahead, and their past doesn't define it. Encourage and tell them that Jesus can fix them and make their life a living testimony, far beyond any storybook or movie.
It was with a heavy heart, seeing how young people especially teenagers are getting into depression at such an early age due to some precarious experiences they had while growing up.
My kind advice to someone today is, please try and reach out to this young ones within your reach, make them feel a genuine sense of love—make them feel free to open up on what they might possibly be passing through at the moment. Most of them feel no one cares and maybe having fears of being judged.
It is our duty as adults to make sure in any little way possible, to extend a caring heart of love to teens around us because, after this period of adolescence, the next phase is adulthood—and they tend to mess up really bad due to trauma, hidden pains and depression.
Please, reach out to any teen today and make them feel loved.