Stable to offer stability

I asked a high school senior what she loves about her Young Life leader who had been her leader for the last six years. She responded,

“Jenna is always there and always is interested in what is going on in my life. Whatever is important to me is important to her. My friends were more worried about what was going on in their lives so it was hard for them to be interested in mine. But not Jenna. I am sure she had things going on in her life but when she was with me she was only interested in me.”

That’s what Young Life leaders do.

Adolescents feel perilously close to having the ground give way and everything they have built their life on come crashing down. When the fall begins they reach out for someone to help them stay upright. So they grab onto a friend who is too focused on staying upright themselves to be able to offer any help.

Young Life leaders must be healthy and stable enough to say to our friends, “Whatever is important to you is important to me.”

Jesus tells a story about a wise man who built his house on the rock. When the storms came his house stayed standing because of its strong foundation. Another man built his house on the sand and when the storms came his house came crashing down.

Adolescents go through storms daily. Adolescent psychologists tell us it is not their fault that their life isn’t built on stable footing; their brains simply haven’t developed in a way that makes that possible.

We must build our identity on Christ.

We must be healthy and stable in that identity so that we can offer health and stability to those we care about.

** In an ideal world parents would be on stable footing to provide stability for their kids. This is not always the case because we are all a work in progress. Parents; let’s build our life on a strong foundation. Do what you need to do to be spiritually and emotionally healthy enough to provide stability for your kids.