Allow me to take you on a trip backward in time for a moment to 1888. In that year in England, Queen Victoria is on the throne and Robert Cecil, Marquess of Sailsbury (a Conservative) is her Prime Minister. Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tire, the Lawn Tennis Association is formed, the Football League begins play, and Jack the Ripper terrorizes London. And on sunday morning June 24, 1888, Charles H. Spurgeon preached a sermon at the Metropolitan Temple in the Elephant and Castle district of London to about 2,000 people titled “Moses-His Faith and Decision” (you can read it in full here).
And why do I bring this all up? Because I have been thinking how much like teenagers we all are. Teenagers are full of angst and everything is dramatic for them because they are experiencing so many things for the first time. The first time a friend betrays them, the first time they compete and lose (or win), the first time they may have the responsibility of a job, the first time they fall in love. These things make them think that no one else has ever conquered, or loved, or lost or hurt as they do. But as adults we look at them and say,”This is not such a big thing.” Because we’ve been there, done that and know what they are going through is commonplace.