BUILDING UP THE WALLS.

[Allan Gerh]

The educational years are a recent addition into a person’s development, and
are a direct result of the modern education system. This stage was non-existent
before colonialism because prior to that time, children would go through a rite
of passage and transition directly into adults.
At this stage, several things are going on in a person’s life…
* Physical and emotional changes – these begin with adolescence, as we begin to
form a sexual identity.
* Independent thinking – People at this stage begin to want a degree of
independence to experiment and to test out their own theories about life, as
they’re establishing a sense of identity.
* Self Consciousness – You want to fit in, to be popular.
* Peer Influence – Young people at this stage no longer see their parents as
all-knowing or all-powerful, and often have developed other relationships that
they now consider as wiser and more ‘with it’.
What are the lessons that a person should learn through the educational years?
There are several, including how to handle money wisely, sports and academics
which teach you the disciplines of hard work and focus. But because the
influence of peers is so important, by far one of the most important lessons to
learn is to teach your teens and to learn for yourself as a young adult is how
to form and maintain positive friendships. If you won the lottery or succeed in
your career but don’t have a wall of solid and dependable friends around you,
it will leave you even more isolated and lonely, surrounded by sycophants who
don’t care for you.
Proverbs 27:6-10
Who are your friends? Three tests for positive friendships…
1. The Realness TestOur socialization teaches us to view relationships with
the opposite gender as sexual and relationships with the same gender as
competitive. We learn how to make superficial relationships because we are
constantly projecting an image. This passage is saying that you should learn
to make friends with people who can be real with you and not have to maintain
a certain image.
2. The Value-Add Test Do your friends reinforce positive values in your life
or do they cause you to misbehave? Are you a better person when you are with
them? Rather than being surrounded by people who are cool or popular, we
should surround ourselves with people who help us become better people.
3. The Commitment Test There are those friends who give you a lot of airtime
when you’re doing well. But when things are not going well, you would never
dare share it with them because you have to keep up the façade. You need
friends who are committed to you no matter what.

The key lesson in your teen and young adult years needs to be building positive
friendships. If you didn’t learn to build such friendships, your walls are in
disrepair. You are setting yourself up for loneliness, sexualized and
competitive relationships, or for unreal or virtual relationships. Even in
marriage, you won’t know how to be friends. And ultimately, it doesn’t matter
how much money you make, you are setting yourself up for life-failure.
Who are your friends? At Mavuno, the Life Group is the one group that’s
committed to help you discover God’s purpose for your life. Remember, to win in
life, to have lasting, all round success, you need positive friends.

[Tony Oketch]

hey.

i think at this point in life it's hard to distinguish whether what we go through in life is a test or just the norm. All the same the Tests do speak loads and loads of sense.