Does anyone else here really hate criticism? Not giving it, but receiving it?

Personally, unless I asked for it, I get mad when people criticize me. I don’t know if this happens to you, but often people who have a problem with me do not go directly to me first, but to someone in authority over me. I then get the treat of at wo pronged attack when I’m confronted both by the person who can punish me and the person who I didn’t even know had a problem with me. Anyone relate?

But several years ago I read the book of Proverbs and found out that being corrected was actually a good thing. Do I like it? No. Do I think the way I just mentioned is the right way to do it? No. But do I need it? Yes, like everybody, I am not perfect.

I have often wished people would just be more sensitive when they correct me. I don’t know what it is about me that makes people in authority be very blunt and sometimes harsh when I cross them, but I guess I inspire that reaction.

Oddly enough, I usually butt heads with the type of people who like to have control, who like to do things their way, and who don’t like to be questioned. I am one of those types of people. They say like forces repel.

I don’t even think its always okay when I act that way, but I also don’t think its’ always wrong. The problem usually is, I’m a teen, and people don’t like to be questioned by teenagers, above all others.

But on the flipside, many teens have chosen to flat out rebel as a way to deal with their emotions. It’s true often people don’t understand us, because we don’t even understand us, yet. But instead of developing patience, adults and teens can often take the easy way and grow apart.

I am no expert mind you, I’m still figuring this out myself, and I won’t be a teen for much longer. (Roughly a year and a half to go people, yea!) but here is what I do know.

Young people, teens and 20-30 years old alike, all feel enormous pressure to be world changers. At this time more than perhaps any other in history, because social media has made it possible to get the message to almost every country. We all want to change the world.

I’ve been doing some research on our founding fathers in America, and those great men all did remarkable things, but you know what their ambitions were after the war? All of them that I’ve studied, they said they just wanted to settle down with their families and live quiet lives for the rest of their days. Really, how can you think there’s not a God, up there laughing and shaking his head saying “Kid, you’re just getting started.”

Now those words are exactly what all of us hear as soon as we move out of one phase of life into the next. “Kid, you’re just getting started.” As soon as we go to middle school we hear this, when we go to high school we hear it, when we go to college and when we get out of college. But when does greatness catch up with us? It seems like we’re all just getting started on the ordinary work we have to do.

Our fathers may have wanted a quiet life and been given a busy one, but most of us want to do great things, and feel we are stuck in the ordinary. How many of us would trade with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, or George Washington in a heartbeat? “We’ll take the war, the inventing, the diplomacy, you take the school and the home life.”

I’m sure, whatever country you live in, you’ve heard that it’s not the people who want fame and power who actually deserve it– or can be trusted with it.

Is telling kids that they can all be the greatest really the best idea?

I don’t doubt that everyone can be great in some way, but not everyone can be famous. I read somewhere that people my age all feel they will be famous some day. But we don’t know how.

Some of us have good motives. We want to help our fellow man. We think the more people know us the more we can help. Others of us just want to be popular.

The hard fact is, we can’t all have that.

Some of us don’t really want it either, we just think we do. The spotlight would make a lot of us miserable. But, it’s usually the people who hate it the most who need to be in it. Not those who love it.

I’ll be honest and admit I’d still like to be well known. I do not want to have everyone all in my business, and scrutinizing my every move. I hope that my gifts and talents do help humanity, I really do. What are we here for if not to bring God pleasure and help each other to do the same?

But I recognize that if I ever am famous, it will have its pitfalls and drawbacks. A person needs to have a strong character to survive it. Look at all the poor teen celebrities who have let their lives go to pot because they can’t help it. I wonder if they are secretly relieved when they lose a lot of their fan base. I don’t judge them because I feel no teen should have that kind of pressure on their lives, and few teens could be expected to handle it.

However old you are, fame is not an easy thing to cope with. Unless it’s limited to a very small circle perhaps. But even then, you should see the lives of some pastors. One church has a lot of needs.

Maybe we should be grateful that things are quiet for now. But there’s more to this I think, so catch my next post–Natasha.