WHAT CAN A KID DO?

I just read yesterday about Thomas Edison.  He gave us more than a thousand inventions which are integral and essential to modern life.  Yet he was deaf from age twelve, and such a poor student he was unacceptable to the school, and had to educate himself.

Hmmmmm.

Stephen and Alex Kendrick, in their book The Resolution For Men write:

Alex and Brett Harris, authors (at age nineteen) of Do Hard Things, tell how history abounds with examples of young men who rose to the occasion after being given great responsibilities.  At twelve, David Farragut, the U.S. Navy's first admiral, took command of his first ship by sailing a captured vessel back to America.  George Washington began mastering geometry, trigonometry, and surveying at the same age as a modern fifth or sixth grader.  At sixteen he became a county surveyor.  At twenty-one he owned 2,300 acres of land.  (p.62)

Dr. Wes Stafford, President and CEO of Compassion International, is one of the world's greatest advocates for children.  He tells of the responsibility he and the other children had in their African village.  They contributed to the food supply by "harvesting a delicacy, the huge...fruit doves...as big as a chicken and just as tasty."  They also protected the fields from marauding gorillas and monkeys by using their sling-shots to pelt them with rocks!

He writes (in Too Small To Ignore):

Kids want more than entertainment;  they want the chance to make a difference...We simply must learn to engage our children and walk with them day by day to foster their dreams and make them come true...Children are more than we think they are;  they can do more than we think they can do.  All they need is a vote of confidence from grown-ups, whom they will ultimately replace anyway.  Their dreams will become the realities of tomorrow.  (pp.43,50-51)

The Kendricks write:  "When a young man is passive and irresponsible, he greatly limits his freedoms, opportunities, and successes.  Whereas responsibility builds up a man and everything around him, the lack of it only weakens and destroys.  Irresponsible men are dangerous to whatever they touch."  (p.62)

Unfortunately, in American culture we have created a relatively new view called adolescence.  This view establishes a moratorium on responsibility and prolongs childhood indefinitely - sometimes through the twenties and into the thirties!

It's time to wake up!