January 30, 2018
Alright, disclaimer before I even begin: I do not pretend to be a learned woman, a tech savvy woman, a woman who is up on the times as much as I should, a super political woman, a smart woman, or really aware woman (the most techy thing I’ve done in 3 years is this blog…I still only have the free pandora on my phone because I know it and don’t want to think about having to learn something new like spotify—I admitted that)…BUT, I do have opinions. That’s all this blog is, people. My opinions, my experiences, my insights in life that could possibly help encourage, uplift, or even just make someone else know that it’s ok not to be perfect, and it’s ok to be real…God still loves us and others will too.
So, all that said, I have a beef I’d like to share. I took my almost 18 year old son out to dinner the other night to this fantastic Mexican restaurant (there HAS to be a Hispanic person somewhere in our line, cause we could eat Mexican food all day, e’r day) and while we were eating another family came and sat at the table behind us. My son was facing them, they were to my back. A young guy maybe 9 years younger than I (I knew him), starts off talking to his father in law about how disappointing it is that this generation, the “Millennials” (mind you, according to most people, if your age is from 16-34 are technially in the Millenial category, so this dude IS a Millenial-the very “generation” he was dissing. Educate yourself.) are the ones we have to rely on to vote for our next president and how they’re bound to screw it all up. He goes on to talk about …
Millennials, if you even know who you are (becasue there actually isn’t a real identifier for these generational names (LOOK IT UP))… I want to say, I am sorry. I am sorry for every stereotype out there about you. I am sorry for every older (or not older, but think they are) person who puts you down and doesn’t have any hope or faith in you. I am sorry that what OUR generation has created with cell phones and social media and not disciplining our kids well or consistently, and taking God out of your schools, and letting men and women go to the bathroom in the same bathroom, and letting small children who’s brains haven’t even fully developed (I don’t have to have a PhD to know this) decide if they want to be a boy or a girl, has affected you so much and now YOU are having to figure out how to fight it…how to come back to the middle ground again, how to regain balance in the midst of this craziness. What insanity we have created for you. I’m sorry.
But I believe you will come back to the middle ground. I’m praying you will. Not every young person is out of control on social media, I know that. Not every young person has abandoned their faith in the One who will sustain, not every young person is a lazy, narcissistic slob with no respect and I believe you can be respectful, intelligent, confident in the way God made you, responsible, God fearing, brave, hard working, honoring, courageous, humans who think of others before yourself and care more about real life than your twitter and insta feed.
You may not have a World War to come back from, but you have a spiritual and internal battle that you will have to fight and win. You will have to decide who you are going to be and who you believe in and fight for it. You’ll have to find where you get strength from when your instagram feed falls apart because every guy following you realizes you don’t actually look like your pics because you PhotoWonder-ed them all and accept who God made you; and even more, believe and know you are beautifully and wonderfully made by your Creator, God, despite what the culture around you is telling you to believe. You’ll have to fight not to compare yourself and your life with everyone else who only posts the positive and come to find joy in God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and that He loves you and there is real HOPE to be found and held in Him. You’ll have to fight to be content with not having everything you want and learn to be content with nothing. Philippians 4:11-13 (From the Bible, this was a man named Paul talking) “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”
You’ll have to fight to recognize things don’t come easy and hard work really does pay off. You’ll have to fight to let the Lord soften and change your heart to respect your elders and honor those who came before you even if we really screwed up and didn’t do a very good job raising you. You’ll have to learn to forgive. You’ll have to learn to love. You’ll have to learn it’s ok to be real, the real you, and know that those that love you still are the ones you need to worry about and that God ALWAYS WILL love you. You’ll have to fight to learn the things we should have taught you and been examples of to you. I’m sorry. You have a fight before you. But I believe every fight, every tribulation, every hard thing you go through and overcome with God’s help in humility and surrender, only makes you stronger.
I was sitting across the table from a young man that night who, despite whether he knows it or not, has strength beyond his years because of the FACT that “He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it” (Phillipians 1:6) and because “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-the Bible).
Fight the good fight, “Millennials” (whoever you think you are).
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Thessalonians 6:12-the Bible)
And remember what you say here on earth is done in Heaven, and what is done in Heaven if you are in His will, is done on Earth. Your words are powerful…speak LIFE to you and others. Matthew 18:18-the Bible “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.”
Amen.
Jody Simmons 