Do Hard Things

While I was at the Grove seeding event, I met a pastor from Parkersburg who recommended a book that she was reading called Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations.

It's available through Amazon and is written by two teenagers, Alex and Brett Harris. If you go to that Amazon link, there is a short video you can watch with the two young men who wrote the book, explaining its premise.

In short, they believe that the current attitude toward teenagers is that we have low expectations of them. We consider the teenage years to be a "vacation from responsibility." These two young authors think that it is a launching pad to life. They wrote this book to say that there is an alternative -- doing the hard thing.

Their scriptural basis is 1 Timothy 4:12:

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity

They believe that while the first half of the verse is appealing, the most important part of it is the second half.

What would happen if we all had that high expectation -- not just of our teenagers, but of ourselves? What would happen if we expected our kids to be an example in speech, life, love faith and purity? And if we expected the same of ourselves?

I think we do have low expectations -- of our kids and of ourselves. I think that not only would life be better if we expected better from each other, but that we want that faith from other people. We all want people to have high expectations of us. We strive for it; we find joy in their faith.

One of the authors in the video says that "God calls us to be exemplary." Amen.

Image: Flower from Lexington at hotel during Ichthus stay.