How do you prepare yourself for your career ten years from now? Who do you look to in order to get ready for the dream in your heart? How can you address long-term personal goals without risking your present job? All these questions are the underlying concern as this paper addresses the history of mentoring, the business and education world's strategies for executive development and a peer mentoring model is proposed and initiated as an example.
At the time of the interview, a few years ago, this Nebraska youth pastor had been so longer than any other in the Cornhusker State. Want to know why?
HOW MANY YOUTH PASTORS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
None, because youth pastors don’t stay around long enough for the bulb to burn out! If you’re like me, part of you would like to “lay hands” on the person who came up with that joke. Then again, maybe part of you sheepishly backs out of the room because of the partial truth in it.
When a new baby is born, fathers, mothers, family and friends all celebrate. For several days, balloons, flowers, gifts and cards flood the hospital and decorate the new parents' home. The new parents experience a kind of euphoria: giving birth to a new creation that is a bit of them.
It has long been rumored that parenting adolescents is a horror story waiting to be told. Yes, the road from childhood to adulthood is not easy. The changes that are happening in your child’s life are coming at warp speed. Extreme moodiness in adolescence is normal. Rebellion is an inevitable and necessary part of growing up. If your teenager does not experiment with risky behavior or flirt with the edges of the boundaries you have established, consider yourself lucky.
Poor or bad decisions have resulted in almost one-half of the youth in this country engaging in one or more of the following problem behaviors: substance abuse; school failure; delinquency; or early, unprotected intercourse (Bogenschneider, Small, and Riley, 1990). Adolescence is a time of increasing opportunities to make decisions about whom to be friends with, whether to go to college, who to date, whether to have sex, and whether to use alcohol or other drugs.
Decision making is an important skill to learn because we make decisions every day, big and little. Parents want children to grow up to be independent, responsible, happy adults. Learning and using a decision-making and problem-solving process will help them grow toward this goal.
Teens need to make more and more of the decisions affecting them. They will learn and grow from their successes and their mistakes. If parents make most of the decisions for them, they will not be ready to take on this task as they become adults.
It was when my own children were toddling around our house that a father of a teenage boy asked me a question I'll never forget: "How can I expect my son to hear the still small voice of God with all those other voices screaming in his ears?" I never fully understood the seriousness of his question until my children entered their teenage years.
It's a school district proud of its quiet neighborhoods, good families, high academic standards, and bright students. A $40,000 student survey opened their eyes to the fact that in 1995, district teenagers were using alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and a variety of other drugs at rates equal to and above the national average. But even though they now know that substance abuse is a problem "that's happening here . . . ", some parents continue to turn their heads in ignorance as they mutter, ". . . but not to my kid!"
Watch for these signs and symptoms that may indicate teen alcohol and drug abuse. A combination of several signs warrants your immediate attention.
Behavioral Signs
All Ray wanted to do was use the phone. He picked up the receiver and got ready to dial but his 16-year-old son Jeff was on the phone with a friend. Before Ray could put the receiver down, something about Jeff’s hushed tone made him listen. I’ve got $20. That should be enough to set us up for the weekend, he heard Jeff say. Curious, Ray listened a little longer as Jeff and his friend peppered their conversation with strange words like blunts, pocket rockets, and hot sticks.
