Contrasts

In addition to being a wife and mother, I work for the school district as a classroom aide in a Youth in Custody facility for teen boys.  I have worked with at-risk teens going on 6 years now.  The first two years were at the alternative high school; the other four year in youth-in-custody.  It has been crazy, fulfilling, stressful and fun all at the same time.  It has also been a learning experience.
Teenagers today have so many more temptations and other things in their lives that make it difficult to just be a kid.  They are faced with an onslaught of media, drugs, alcohol, pornography, anti-religion advocates, and the list goes on and on.  How do we, as parents and youth leaders, combat this?
This month's visiting teaching message for the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints provides the answer.  It's very simple, really.  It's this amazing thing called The Gospel!  I'm inserting a picture of a handout I found on a wonderful website www.theideadoor.com  You will notice that one of the tools listed is Family Meals!  When I was at the alternative high school, a female student asked me if I made dinner for my family and if we sat down to dinner as a family.  Naturally, I said "Yes".  She than said, "Maybe if my mom made dinner once in a while and we ate together, I wouldn't have gotten into trouble.....".  Lightbulb! Nuf said!