What If A Hurting Teen Came To You?

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Last night, like the first Wednesday of every month, my friends and I served dinner at HomePlate. Nothing earth shattering happened. It was a run of the mill evening. 

We prepped.

We served.

We ate.
We talked.
We cleaned.

We said, “Goodbye. See you next month.”

This morning, I awoke to Glennon Melton’s post on Momastery. A few paragraphs in, I read this:

And why was I sent here in the first place? I was still sick. I was really sick and this type of sickness doesn’t work itself out by a teenager girl. It just doesn’t. It gets worse. Of course it does. And so all of this is starting to feel like a bit of a set up because what the hell else was going to happen to me here?? I was young and sick and lost and addicted to food and so wasn’t it just inevitable that I’d find the booze and the drugs and the people who would make me feel like booze and drugs and bulimia and casual sex were OK? Cool, even?

Where were the GODDAMN ADULTS? WHERE WERE THE GODDAMN HEALTHY PEOPLE? WHY DIDN’T THEY NOTICE ME?

See more at Momastary 
Read the rest, then come back to me. I’ll wait.
After I finished reading the post, I thought, huh. My college life was a little different. Not great or perfect or squeaky clean – but different.
And then I thought, huh. Last night I spent a few hours with teens who ARE hurting. I spend time with them every month. I feed them. I make small talk with them. But am I helping them? Are they dying so much on the inside that they are THIS CLOSE to actually dying?
HomePlate employs fabulous outreach workers and core volunteers giving so much of their souls to these hurting kids. I know the youth are being listened to at every meal night or outreach activity by the HomePlate crew. But what am I doing?
HomePlate Crew, milling about

I think Momastary’s post may be a wake up call for ALL OF US adults to be a little more intentional about listening. And caring. And remembering what it’s like to be a lost teenager. And showing compassion for the lost teenagers who have no stable grown ups in their lives. I want to be part of the “net” that Glennon talks about. And I want to make sure my own daughters have a “net” of their own when they inevitably fall during adolescence. 

How have your teen years affected your adult years? Are you a stronger human being, or still fighting the pain of the 15 year old inside your 43 year old self?

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