While sitting at work, during the quiet times, I have read four small books on prevalent teen social/emotional issues by a group called "Mercy Ministries" They are simple, meant to be put in the hands of teens, but very much to the point and insightful...

Something big in the teen community now is "cutting" - where teens carve themselves up - especially girls, of course. Other major issues are eating disorders, abuse and addiction. As the author seeks to help young women understand spiritual concepts, she uses some good illustrations. One is the following:
Sin is a big, stone wall between you and your best friend. You can't talk through it..It was erected (in Adam) and by you stone by stone...

She talks of the "reaching out" of Philippians as being similar to a baby's reaching for something beyond its grasp, straining with all its might....I see this in both Cora and Will each time I see them - a good picture...

Vis a vis abuse, she talks of Christ's shame of the cross - that he bore our shame as well as our sin...She also talks of the "ungodly soul tie" formed between a perpetrator and his victim...

With eating disorders, she defines the driving force behind each one as:
Anorexia - being so busy counting calories etc., that you can't think about emotional issues
Bulimia-Purging emotion
Binge eating-externalizing, expressing inner chaos

She quotes a distraught young woman talking of her conversion"
I came to God in anger and defiance, throwing my trash can life at him and saying he could have it if he could do anything with it....It doesn't matter how you come to him, it matters THAT you come to him...

The author say, of course, how important it is that the women see themselves as new creatures, expressing it this way:
Paul was not a "recovering murderer", but a new creature; Peter was not a "recovering lier" but a new creature...

Good little books...

May they bless the shattered young girls that call us night and day...


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