Kids today

 Boy, what a subject.  Way too big for a blog post. But maybe small enough if I keep the post to one primary observation.

Yesterday, as Mona and I were doing some shopping at the Nederland, Colorado food store we saw a lovely thirteen-ish daughter with her well dressed mother. They were doing what so many mom's and daughters do when shopping together; lightly disagreeing over what kind of something to buy.  No problem there, right?  Normal.

What was a problem for us was that mom seemed to have no problem with the T-shirt her daughter was wearing.  Now, before you get excited and tell me, "But you're a guy!  And you're both old!  You'd never understand."  I already believe that's something like what this daughter said to her mom, and possibly dad, before she was allowed to wear the shirt she had on.

Wait a minute!  This is Nederland, Colorado!  One of the last true bastions of American free thought and total 'be who you are but don't kill anybody being it' life.  But it seems this doesn't matter, as my son, a 17 year resident of this very unique town,  has sometimes expressed, "the hippies are generally just loose, but they are harmless.  The mean homeless are few, thank God,  and no one believes they should be allowed to harm anyone, even themselves.  Its the yuppies, the wealthy adults and especially their kids, who take advantage of others sensibilities, insult without thought, and need to be educated in how to be citizens of a community of OTHERS." (very loosely translated, actually paraphrased.  Sorry for any errors Jim!)

OK. But what did the T-shirt say?  Well, it took me a minute to figure it out.  And I'll grant you, the shock value got my attention when I did. But in reverse of what this probably very nice girl meant for me to understand.

The shirt, in very big, bold letters across her chest said, "FCKH8".

I am as much opposed to people hating other people as anyone.  I struggle to live as Jesus taught: to love God and all others before anything else.  And that is HARD.  But to use a word that implies the grossest possible meaning for one of God's most wonderful gifts to define a positive behavior does not work.  Except in reverse.  And that's what happened to me. My initial reaction was not, "Yeah sister!  You are RIGHT!"

My reaction was, "Your shirt makes me want to hate you."  Why?  I was deeply offended.

Maybe the sad thing you see here, if any sad thing at all, is that I could be offended by a teenager taking seriously a problem of hatred that we do face in this country, and everywhere humans breathe, and at least making some kind of statement against it.  But I don't see it that way.

I was first offended that she would wear such a shirt outside of a toilet.  I was second offended that her mother was with her, obviously approving of her choice of clothes (or just 'letting her kid be a kid'). and I was third offended by what I can do little about.  The shirt was not hand made.  The teen had not designed it herself.  I have seen them on racks at the New Jersey beaches and in Boulder, Colorado gift shops.

It seems 'offensive' is a huge industry.

Of course it is.  It always has been.  But for an obviously educated parent to not only allow, but by allowing, support that industry in this way seems, well, wrong.

And that's my point.  Kids today are no different than kids 7,000 years ago, so archaeological finds and the Bible tell us. If you raise up a child in the way they should go, eventually they just might get there.

And if you let the child raise themselves, well, they'll get there instead.

Praying for our next generation, but mostly for its parents...

-Pastor Ken