Teens Talk - Damage

The Grand Rapids Times
March 21, 2008

This week I was going to write a follow up article on the ways one can contribute to their community through community service, etc. However, my heart has encouraged me to talk to my readers about another issue, DAMAGE. Damage is an illness that has been in the world for many years and an illness that isn’t leaving any time soon. This year has just begun and already changes have been made that many individuals are displeased with.I am referring to the issue of race specifically when I speak of damage. Damage has been occurring in our communities because everyone believes that they are in a race, everyone wants to become the alpha dog or the head honcho. When I see damage I say, “OH BOY!” don’t we all know that we were all created from the same flesh, don’t we all know that there isn’t any superior race, Oh Boy! we need some damage control. Oh Boy! we need some damage control, because ever since I was a little boy I never knew it to be o.k. to say nigger, hunky, spick, or any other derogative racial term. Now I hear people say these terms around me frequently, have people lost their minds, Oh Boy, we need some damage control. Damage will one day be the down fall of the world if we do not get a hold of the issue now. I have a news flash for all damage creators, I don’t care if you all are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or any other race, but change is happening in politics and in the social environments of the United States. Damage creators are just going to have to trust in God’s decisions in choosing a minority presidential leader if that is his final decision. It isn’t our plan, it is always God’s. So many individuals including myself have been disturbed to even see damage within our own peers. Not necessarily damage within the issue of race but damage within the issue of hatred. Why teens are we always hating on each other? If someone has something that you admire, that doesn’t give you the right to hate them or hate on them for owning what they have. Oh Boy! we need some damage control, if someone has an attractive significant other don’t hate, go find you one, Oh Boy! we need some damage control. Just because someone owns magnificent materialistic items doesn’t mean that they have it all together on the inside. Just because someone has all of the riches, education, and power in the world, without God and the Power of God to protect him and guide him through this sometimes cruel world, he has nothing. Oh Boy! we need some damage control. I pray to God to send down some damage control. Deuteronomy 32:5 “They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.”A corrupted generation is just what we are creating when we forget about God’s plans for ourselves in order to create damage. Oh Boy! some of us need damage control when we hate others for having higher education when all we have to do is go out and obtain the same knowledge. As long as we allow damage to take control of our lives we will continue to distance ourselves from God. On a clearer note if we as teens, keep hating and not empowering each other in true brotherhood and sisterhood we will not be able to lift each other up as I see the generations before us have. We will need each other someday. I am taking observations from three wonderful organizations that I am glad to have learned from The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority of Grand Rapids, Our Kitchen Table, and Martha Chapter No.1 of the Order of the Eastern Star. These organizations are active in our community and are actively enriching each other in love and grace as they work together with teens in Grand Rapids. May the Grace of God be with you ladies and thank you for your dedication to the youth, we appreciate it; you have forever changed my life. I’m going to leave you all with this: Psalm 53:3 “Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Not all of us are right with the Lord and damage is not helping that situation or encouraging any of us to walk in Gods footsteps.