Basic HTML Version
FOR
TEEN
EYES
ONLY
by
Dexter H. Faulkner
At times teens think their problems are more than they can handle.
Family, friends, even your own feelings can get you down. Read this article
for sorne encouraging, positive solutions.
W
HAT's
so great about
being a teenager?
Your teachers tell
you that the world is your oyster,
that you can be anything you
want to be.
You wonder, don't you?
Your parents tell you that you
should enjoy these, the "best years
of your life."
That would be a good trick–
since you may be the shortest kid in
your class, have acne and add to
your chances of becoming a candi–
date for lung cancer every time you
walk itito the smoke-filled school
lavatory.
If
these are the best years
of your life, you can imagine what
tbe rest will be like!
You're right. Being a teenager
isn' t easy. lt's a time of change–
change in your body, in your mind,
in your outlook.
May 1985
Books and magazines throw
around the issues of hormonal
adjustments, peer pressure, sex,
drugs and academic pressure so
much that you get the impression
the teen years are like the chicken
pox- something everybody has to
endure once.
But look at it another way. The
changes, pressures and confticts in
your Iife are not necessarily bad.
They are just circumstances. And,
circumstances can affect us posi–
tively or negatively, depending on
how we respond to them.
The Proverbs in the Bible tell us
to make the most of our Iives while
we have the chance. So let's take
another look at being a teenager,
from a more positive point of view.
Your Health
Perhaps you know that, at least in
tbe early part of the teen years,
hormones are signaling the changes
that turn your body into an adult's.
These chemical changes can also
contribute to moody spells, stimu–
late the oil glands in your skin and,
among boys, cause growth spurts
that make your limbs feel too long
for your body and your trousers
rise treacherously off the ftoor .
Seems like your body is playing a
mean trick, doesn't it? But don't
forget, even in the midst of this
hormonal activity, you probably
still have excellent overall health.
Years of work and stress have not
taken their toll. Your body has not
had time to absorb many of the
poisons society produces. You can
probably work hard all day and still
feel ready to go out at night, while
your parents collapse into the near–
est easy chair.
Your body is like a new car, just
out of the factory, its engine rev-
7