Youth is an integral member of a family; a family is an integral part of a Society, and a Society duly constitutes a Nation.

Youth is a period of being young, especially between a child and being fully grown, from a teenager to a young adult. Youth is an integral member of a family. A family is an integral part of a Society, and a Society duly constitutes a Nation. It is a well-known fact that family values have been debased. Parents no longer play traditional roles, and children disobey and act flagrantly against social norms and duties. The attributes of old family values, which include honesty, respect, purity, caring, and commitment, have all been thrown into the garbage by the youths. Parents have permitted our violence-addicted culture to re-program their children through films/movies, music, cartoons, and video games, making the youths of today endangered. Therefore there must be a paradigm shift by the youths to the old traditional values. These traditional values guided Society with a godly hand and human face in the past. Society truly needs Godly Youths. Youths have vital roles in the plans and purposes of God in the world.

Youths are vessels of transformation in God’s vineyard and a source of inspiration to others. Youths are the future of a Nation. Youths have rendered valuable contributions to the struggle for liberation and national development. They constitute a reservoir of energy and dynamism for any National Struggle if they are correctly guided, mobilized, and fully integrated into the nation’s social fabric. They constitute a militant force in any political system, so nurturing godly youths for specific roles is essential. Youths’ need moral guidance, discipline, and encouragement, and they must help model or re-model social-political decisions and policies.

Youths are stakeholders in the smooth running of Society. Godly principles are holistic; they should then inform our ideas about public life. Faith in the public square is different from imposing strict religious values. Instead, it is putting in practice those “kingdom values” espoused in the Holy Scriptures. It means turning our senses into a frequency that sees the world as a landscape God can transform. To turn the Society away from dominance, hypocrisy, pomp, pride, greed, malice, deceit, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly and towards kingdom values of justice, peace, sacrificial love, compassion, and goodness. The cause fought against corruption is a cause fought for social justice.

The cause fought against systemic evil is a cause for what we believe in through Faith. Sacrificial love also includes having the grace to speak the truth with love, without prejudice of the other. For any society to obtain true reform, two groups should be targeted: the women and the youths. The young generation has always played a tremendous role in breaking and building nations. It is from this rank that arises idealism, the desire to change the world; the raw passion for pushing forward; the energy to execute these dreams and ideas.

There are many examples in the Bible of young people rising as leaders who built great nations – David, Joseph, and Jesus himself. In contemporary times, we can think of youth leaders who have struggled and fought for a cause they truly believed in, Obama was the youngest candidate in the 2008 race for the American Presidency, and he won the race. Youth Education should start at a young age, of what democratic principles look like; social justice; helping the marginalized, the poor, and victimized in Society; cultivating values that eventually build a nation. To build a strong nation, one needs to ensure solid moral values – spirituality is both about the public and private life.

Scriptural–Based Roles:

1. Youths must allow mentors into their lives: They need people around them who are not afraid to tell them what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear.
2. Youths must recognize their limitations: Divest themselves of visions of grandeur, Lone Rangers’, the Napoleonic or Messianic complexes. President Eisenhower likened the indispensable man to a person who left his impression after pulling his thumb out of a bucket of water.
3. Youths must model spiritual leadership
4. Youths must be Capable: (Literally, virtue, courage, and strength)
5. Youths must Fear God (Literally, fear and revere God)
6. Youths must be Trustworthy (Literally, hate bribes)
7. Youths must provide stability for others:

Characteristic of Godly Youths: 

• Fear of God,
• Shepherds of God’s Flock,
• Authority based on service, not Power,
• Eagerness to Serve,
• Capable,
• Wise,
• A teacher of God’s decrees & Laws,
• As Overseers i.e

– Above Reproach

– Temperate

– Wise

– Self Controlled

– Respectable

– Hospitable

– Able to Teach

– Not given to Drunkenness

– Not Violent

– Not quarrelsome

– Not a lover of money

–  Good reputation with outsiders

A soldier concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. These metaphors speak volumes to the Youths of today, for they are called to be Soldiers, Athletes, and Farmers. A soldier fights the good fight of Faith. An athlete runs the race and finishes strong. A farmer labors faithfully and patiently until the harvest comes in. The Soldier is all about duty performed with diligence. Leadership is Service to God by motivating, organizing, managing, supervising, and encouraging others. Leadership is not just gaining recognition holding a position of the boss but requires planning, hard work, courage, prayerful habit, perseverance, and self-sacrifice. Leadership Skills include Demonstration of Excellent Leadership; Spiritually ready to head God’s call; A careful planner; A team worker (Team Work); A Problem Solver; Courage to get the work done; Tremendous Faith; An Organizer; A Hard worker; Courageous; Perseverance; Prayerful; Standing Firm with God; Motivator; Manager; Supervisor; Encouraged others; and Confronted injustice.

 

Three Things To Do To Win The “Race”

1. Get rid of every encumbrance, and sin that cleverly places itself in an entangling way around youths. To name a few:

• The Sex Craze.
• The Enticement Of The Eyes.
• The Pride That Comes From Wealth And Importance.
• Malice — Vicious intentions; the desire to hurt others.
• Hypocrisy — Playacting
• Envy — Jealousy, spite, ill-will;
• Slander — Evil speaking, defamation, backbiting;
• Anxiety

2. Run the “race” before you with patient endurance.
3. Keep your eyes on Jesus and emulate His example