I started reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (twin brothers of Joshua Harris from I Kissed Dating Goodbye) because I hoped to find some brilliant ideas for inspiring my students. Nothing makes me crazier than perfectly capable young people living beneath their God-given potential. Well, I found inspiration, but a lot of it applied to more than just my students. It applied to ME!
The message in Do Hard Things is based on Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to not “let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for believers” in all matters of virtue and faith. The Harris brothers point out that the term teenager has only been in use for the last 50-70 years and, obviously, isn’t mentioned in the Bible at all. In other words, our cultural idea of being a teenager is a phenomenon that imposes ridiculously low expectations on otherwise capable young people. This book challenges teenagers to do hard things in five different categories:
1. Things that are outside your comfort zone.
2. Things that go beyond what is expected or required.
3. Things that are too big to accomplish alone.
4. Things that don’t earn an immediate payoff.
5. Things that change the cultural norm.
Even though I still FEEL like a teenager, I realize I’m not exactly the target demographic for this book. Still, I am challenged by this message of excellence. I would reccommend this book to the ‘tweens and teenagers in your life (and you could read it first).
Also, The Rebelution Blog put together a Modesty Survey that I found valuable. Christian girls anonymously asked questions about the way they dress and Christian guys answered. Sometimes it is helpful to see specifics when it comes to the modesty question. It is a topic I’ll probably take up later, but for now you might want to look at the work of some teenagers trying to do hard things!
Rare Rocks 
Felicity,
I learned about the “teenager” label when homeschooling my kids. It isn’t that kids don’t want to be treated as responsible adults, society has deemed them not worthy so much of the time. We talked about this with our kids, they never had the curfews, and very few restrictions thier “teenage” friends had, because we told them they were NOT teenagers, they were young ADULTS; thus they would be treated and expected to behave as such. They stepped up, relishing the responsibility, and freedom that expected maturity warrented. They fell, don’t get me wrong, perfect they were not. But we never struggled with many of the “teenage” issues because they were either children or young adults. Eliminating the in-between clarified things for them a great deal.
As for the modesty thing. On the video series by Josh Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, he comments, and I have always rememberd it, and the kids and I talked about it at length, that, “if a girl could get inside a guys head for 10 min., she would change her entire wardrobe.”, I thought that was a pretty powerful statement, and having been married for 33 years, I know this is true. Men are visual, and women don’t help it many many times by the way they dress, i.e. reason pornography is sooooo popular. Hugh Hefner knew what he was doing, and has made millions off of it. Great post, keep encouraging those kids to be ADULTS–they can do it, they just need to be encouraged they can.
This sounds like great stuff. I like the idea of expecting more from your teenagers in a way that actually gives them more freedom – and, of course, more responsibility. I also like to see that Josh Harris’s brothers have a change-the-world attitude too. Perhaps the parents should write a book on how to rear kids with ambition.
Actually Seren, I think if you check, those boy’s dad did write a book years ago, and perhaps it is still out there. He was a speaker on the Homeschooling circuit as his kids were “getting there”, and it was while we were homeschooling. They have a large family if I remember, and he and his wife were both tapped as speakers at conferences.
Very interesting. I’m writing down that list to inspire myself. I’ll share it with my teens too.
Thanks!