As a Christian teenager, I find myself fighting challenges that test the base of my faith. These challenges include disciplinary struggles, peer pressure, and stumps in growing in their spiritual journey. In today’s culture where trends are coming and going, there are many complexities that you may confront daily—from secular culture storming our minds, to negative social media narratives.
Media Influence
The reality presented in the media fills young minds with unrealistic expectations and pressure. Negative posts, cyberbullying, and the comparison game with “perfect” online personas can greatly affect self esteem. Consuming secular culture and diving into potentially harmful content can distract Christian teens from their own spiritual journey as they are distracted by the endless content consumed online.
Social media can encourage careless communication, take time away from God, and expose Christian youth to opinions that can disagree with their own beliefs. Furthermore, the negative outlooks bombarding youth online can cause discomfort in expressing their faith openly.
Quick entertainment is becoming more common for youth, such as TikTok and Instagram, because it opens new doors for teens to absorb secular culture. Quick entertainment is easy to access and to use. It is tempting and distracting to scroll on social media because its bite-sized content is feeding the viewer’s brain in such a short amount of time. This creates a low attention span for many people, which makes it difficult to focus on prayer and reading the word of God.
Secular Culture
The dominating culture surrounding us can be rather persuasive and can often alter our beliefs. There is such a struggle for young believers to have their own spirituality and not be conflicted with others perspectives.
A freshman from Methuen High School, Vania Demelo has difficulties in her faith regarding secular culture. According to Vania, “I feel it is difficult because social media can be very negative. I believe that it has affected me in a way that shows me a lot of different perspectives on other people’s faith, which has affected my own.”
Vania’s struggles reveal the difficulties that people may face. She struggles with the negativity social media brings. As she stated, social media plays a big role in secular culture as different online perspectives affect her own beliefs. The different perspectives online can cause conflict in one’s faith because they might persuade one to believe in something that does not agree with their religious beliefs, such as questioning the existence of God.
Discipline Struggles
Discipline is a struggle for all teens, but especially for young believers. There is a matter of maintaining spiritual habits, such as not speaking foul language, reading the Bible, and maintaining prayers in daily life. These habits and many more require effort. Developing self discipline is important for spiritual growth and can empower us to overcome these challenges.
Even on hard and tiring days, talking to God is important. Those days are the most important because if you can do it on hard days, then it only gets easier.
Pear Pressure
Peer pressure adds extra complexity to a person’s spiritual journey that is difficult for youth to overcome. Friends and peers might pressure you to participate in activities that conflict with your beliefs.
In an article from Knowable God it states, “The decline of organized religion leaves many young Christians feeling like a cultural minority.” This decline is tremendously impactful towards young believers; it creates another block in the road for others to find others to sharpen your faith with.
Developing healthy relationships with others is difficult for Christian youth to establish. In an article from Christian Today states, “ Being a Christian is hard but really who said it was easy?”.
A freshman from Central Catholic High School, Erin Flaherty, has expressed her struggles with peer pressure. “When I am surrounded by non-Christians I feel the need to fit in with them, and pretend I am not a Christian. If I don’t fit in I feel judged.”
Hiding or keeping one’s religion a secret has become more common for young believers. Sin is so normalized and not living a life with God is as well. Teens feel they need to fit in with others who God is not bringing them towards.
Not all Christians teens have the privilege to go to faith based schools, and those who do may still have difficulties to find others with the same values and expectations as them.
Living out faith
Most individuals confine their faith to Sundays or church services. However, that is not the only time and place where one should live out their faith. Implementing our faith into our daily routine is crucial for young Christians.
Whether you are participating in youth groups or camps, finding mentors who can guide you through your faith journey, or taking part in service projects that benefit the community; all are important actions that can help you to live in your faith.
Relationships
Maintaining healthy relationships is difficult for many young people in today’s society. Finding relationships that are centered around God isn’t easy, but staying in relationships with others who are pulling you away from God is harder than some might think.
As stated by Vania Demelo, “Leaving relationships that are not centered by God is difficult because I am led away from God. I tend to follow others’ sinful actions when surrounded by them.”
Teens have the tendency to follow others’ sins, especially that of their own friends. There is a cliche saying that you are who you hang out with. It is true; people often look past this and don’t stop to realize that it is true. Surrounding yourself with people you aspire to be like, those that have the same beliefs as you helps you strive towards your goals.
The Struggle
Many struggles that Christian teens face such as peer pressure, discipline, secular culture, and relationships can affect their spiritual journey. It can create roadblocks and skepticism. Teens recognize these challenges and dedicate themselves to rise in their faith journey. Being true to yourself can help you become stronger through your faith. Navigating in this society as a young Christian not easy. Recognizing these challenges that teens face is crucial for seeking effective support.
