Young Adulthood Ceremony

We have begun a new thing in our family. Actually it is an old idea, but one that has been lost on western civilization. We had with our HC a coming into young adulthood ceremony for Hannah our eldest child, she will turn 13 this summer. We as parents gave her a charge to walk with her Heavenly Father, take responsibility for her life and choices and be a good example to others! All the other adults in our group of friends and the other young adults from about 12 and up also spoke into her life, then we capped it all off with the gift of a silver bracelet and prayer of blessing over her life and a meal together! It was really special. She is a sweet, smart and creative young lady. She is changing, learning new things and having those same growing pains that we all have in major times of change. So pray for us as parents for God's wisdom and strength!

We plan to do this for each of our children as a way to grow them and recognize them as responsible young adults that we expect to fully participate in life! Our culture for the last 100 yrs has pushed "adolescents" to the fringe of society and they feel it! Maybe this is why we are loosing so many of them to dangerous and bizarre rites of passage to prove themselves worthy of trust, respect and a place in our world. Our model Jesus was considered a maturing adult at 12, with expectations and seen by his entire community as a fully participating member and expected to be that! We sometimes see the time btw 13-18 as a time of no expectations and no responsibilities this is not what will grow a healthy young adult to full manhood or womanhood!

By the way, the term adolescence is a fairly new term only about 100 yr old and the way we define it is very important to what we expect from our teens, if we expect and model responsible living we will probably get it! Most kids turn out very similar to their parents! Grace to you!