Parenting Teens: What Would Jesus Do? Seriously:A Second Cup Guest Blogger

I was planning to post in my new series Getting form Here to There. However homeschool in now in full swing, I am teaching Ephesians on Sunday nights for the next 10 week, I am teaching at Circle of Friends every other week (here's irony, the scheduled talk in 2 weeks is on priorities and time management, the kids are now too busy to help with the house work, so I haven’t written anything new since Monday. I kept to my summer pace instead of speeding up as Labor Day approach and now I am behind in everything. The fact that I had 10 episodes of NCIS Tivoed and a cool knitting project didn’t help me be productive this week. Therefore, Stacey at All Stacey, All The Time had a though provoking post on raising teens…..without further adieu:

What Would Jesus Do? Seriously…

So I'm at work today and Nick is with me because he had a class this morning. He was helpful when I needed him, he did well in class and even came out to socialize with some of our customers/friends. About 30 minutes before we are scheduled to leave, a customer comes in who we've known for over 10 years. We've gone to church with this woman for many years, we went to her eldest daughter's wedding, I mean, we know her.

Nick was dressed as he usually is - shorts, graphic t-shirt, sneakers, his PSP playing music in his ear. His shirt was white with a heavy metal/guitar theme on the front that had some skulls and some words but he's worn it like a thousand times and I don't find it offensive and until today, no one else had. Well, this woman greets him very nicely "Oh, Nicholas, I haven't seen you in a while!" Everyone's friendly, everyone's fine. Then she starts commenting on his shirt. "What's with that shirt? With the skulls and...blah, blah, blah. Do you think that you are representing Christ with that shirt? What are you listening to? Is that music glorifying Christ?" I mean, it went on and on and on and on for several minutes. Now with every comment she made, I tried to point out something positive, but she clearly wanted none of it. When we explained that he was listening to CHRISTIAN metal and how his shirt was autographed by a band from the "Scream the Prayer" tour, she said "Funny, I don't remember Jesus screaming."

Okay, now the gloves are coming off! Now, I am so proud of Nick because he was completely respectful and was polite to her during her entire attack. Luckily, this woman's children distracted her with their need to use the restroom and she finally relented. I had Nick get his gear and go wait somewhere - ANYWHERE - else.

Now, Christian or not, does anyone out there think that Jesus would attack someone like that? Whether you know your Bible word for word or not, did Jesus only hang out with the people who looked, thought and spoke EXACTLY like Him? NO! If my child were not a Christian do you think attacking him - in front of his mother, her boss, other customers - would be a way to WIN him over to Christ or do you think you would have just pushed him away? Do you think that verbally attacking someone glorifies God? Do you think embarassing them in front of people 'represents' our Lord and Savior? I mean, I am certainly no Bible scholar but even I know that no where in the Bible does Jesus behave in such a way. No where in the Bible does it say that you can only sing about and worship Him to hymns! If screamo-metal (I don't know the 'actual' word for his music) speaks to the teens of today and helps them form a relationship with Christ and makes them excited about being a Christian, then SHUT UP!

I'm not a teen and I don't particulary like the screamo stuff, but neither am I a hymn person. Personally, they put me to sleep. I like contemporary Christian music. When our last church changed from contemporary to more traditional music, it actually HINDERED my spiritual time. I can guarantee you that I am not alone. Not everyone has to worship God in the same exact way - just as long as you worship Him. Not everyone dresses the same, not everyone speaks the same, not everyone has to BE the same!

Last I checked, one of the last people who thought that way put millions of people in to a gas chamber.

Would that be better for you, friend?

Has your kid's witness been called into guestion by others? How did you or your child respond?