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May - June 2000 The Sabbath Sentinel

A Teen's View of Her World

by Mandie Nickels

As a teenager, I am bombarded with many temptations and trials every day. Sex, drugs, alcohol, and profanity is everywhere. Peer pressure is a daily mine field for me, as it is for all teenagers. When will these troubles ever end?

Sex is openly discussed and even experimented with among my peers. In Health class, instead of being taught not to do it, we are taught how to do it "safely." Yes, teenagers are still going to have sex, even with a four hour lecture on how dangerous it is --- but it is abstinence which should be taught, rather than safety.

In school, I must hear the word 20-30 times a day. Just walking down the halls in school, I often overhear something with sexual overtones. Sex is common part of our everyday language as teenagers. "Should I do it with him?" "Do I love him?" "Do I love him enough to do it with him?"

What's that all about? What ever happened to the meaning of love? Does love equate to sex? To some teenagers, the sad answer is "yes."

In school, my Health teacher showed us a survey from a poll taken last year. One in two teenagers will graduate from high school without their virginity. That means that 50% of my classmates are going to break God's Law on that one commandment alone!

That sounds incredibly hard to believe. Yet, since I attend school regularly with these teenagers, it really isn't too hard for me to believe. Allow me to share a story that I heard, the other day, from one of my friends. It was about a girl that I didn't know very well.

She was four months pregnant, and at a party one night, she had smoked so much "pot" (marijuana) that she had a miscarriage in the bathroom. Amazingly, she (apparently) came out afterwards and continued to light up! I hope that this was just an awful rumor, but these terrible things do happen.

Recently, I got a job at a fast food restaurant (to generate funds for a car). I was appalled to find out how many teenagers smoke cigarettes! Out of 32 people that work there, 21 of them are teenagers --- and of them, most are regular smokers; only three teenagers who don't spend their breaks polluting their lungs.

Not long ago, I was required to attend an employee meeting. We were all forced to wait outside because our supervisor had not arrived to unlock the doors --- and nearly every single employee was smoking! I was forced to stand there, waiting, while my friends polluted their lungs --- as well as my lungs (with their secondhand smoke). SOME FRIENDS!

Sometimes the inability of my classmates to see how they are damaging their bodies just disgusts me. Why can't they see how they are hurting themselves and their friends by their thoughtless actions? "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."-Matthew 5:30.

I believe that I would gladly lose an arm or a leg rather than to be thrown into hell. However, it is clear that many of the youth today, including my own friends, would not. I find that incredibly sad. ... Please let's pray together for today's youth before it's too late.

Mandie Nickels is the daughter of Rich and Shirley Nickels, longtime servants of God and His children.

TSS

May - June 2000 The Sabbath Sentinel