Letter to American Youth

The Lord has laid this on my heart, and before you dismiss it as not being for you, I encourage you to please read it…

Dear Young Person,

We owe you an apology.  We have failed you.  We have let you down, and now, we don’t know how to handle our failures.  We were supposed to be the example for you to follow.  We were supposed to show you the way to handle life’s difficult circumstances and situations….we were supposed to help you grow and mature…

It breaks my heart to have to write this to you, knowing that we let you down by not being there as your parent, mentor, or friend…it pains me to have to admit that we have failed you and are now blaming you for the situations that you find yourself in because of our lack of guidance.

See, the Bible says in Proverbs 22:6 to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  This is where we have failed you, because we have not trained you to look to God for answers.  We have failed you by teaching you that being destructive and divisive is okay.  We have shown you that attacking others, calling them names, treating them with disrespect, and blaming them for our own shortcomings is the proper way to handle life.

We owe you an apology for not showing you the value of the family, for not being there when you needed us the most…for teaching you that we stand for family values, but only when it pertains to something we agree with, while showing you that it is acceptable to tear our own families apart because we only value the idea of a “Good, Christian home” while allowing alcohol and lust to tear apart our own family.  We haven’t shown you what it looks like to seek God in all issues and allow Him to direct our steps…no, instead we have shown you that leaving when you do not agree with someone is ok….we have shown you to take a stand for what you believe in….but not to listen to others and work toward a solution, just to yell and scream until you get your way….That is not what we were supposed to do….

We were supposed to show you the Love of God…the love that is God….love in general…

We were supposed to be the example…not show you how problems shouldn’t be handled…

Maybe, if we hadn’t been so selfish, you wouldn’t have felt that you needed to act out in many of the ways that you have…

Please forgive us….can we start over? I hope it isn’t too late…

Remember, Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

In God’s Love,

Someone who Let you Down