Raging hormones. Exploding sexual passion. Rebellion punctuated by tattoos, pierced lips, and unfathomable music. What happens during the teen years to make kids so different? In this fascinating ABC News special, John Stossel talks to a variety of teens and their parents and visits the Harvard Medical School’s Brain Imaging Center to reveal some surprising physiological reasons for teen behavior. He also discovers a social hierarchy among teens (the influencers, the conformers, the passives, and the edge kids) that is responsible for most fads, and talks with a psychologist and therapist about the secrets to successful parental nurturing: have rules but make them few, allow room for mistakes, and lecture less and listen more.
http://ffh.films.com/id/11167/Teens_What_Makes_Them_Tick.htm
One of my biggest goals in life, is that my Kids will grow up and still love me. I see them as adults already, and don't want them to be adults that hate their parents. I understand that they are their own people and need freedom. They need to express their feelings, and I need to listen. I hated being lectured when I was a teen...and not able to speak my mind, out of fear of punishment.
This show brought tears to my eyes as they talked about how Teens are the most creative and successful people in history. How their brain uses the amigdela; the creative, emotional and impulsive part of the brain. And how adults use the frontal lobe, responsible for rational thought.
They showed this girl that's an amazing, successful artist. She will paint all day. So much joy and energy! And I thought how Jesus said we must come to him like a child; joyful, unashamedly enthusiastic, impulsively. Matthew 18:3 "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."
That teen girl artist said that she thinks "Kids Love Life" and adults don't know how to. That's so true! We don't know how to enjoy life, love God and the life that he gave us. Instead we operate in fear and what we have to lose; not what we have to gain. And those Teen years are all about what you have to gain. That's when your whole life is before you and the sky's the limit!
I pray that I can me more like a child again. Amen.
