Bring Out the Hero Inside Your Teenager

The Bible is filled with unlikely heroes. A young shepherd boy and a ragtag bunch of disciples are just some of the people God used to fulfill his plans. God doesn’t have a strict set of requirements or an age limit for service. Instead, he uses young people in mighty ways to minister and serve.

Twins Alex and Brett Harris are two young heroes who set out to spark an adolescent “rebelution.” At age 18, they wrote Do Hard Things (Multnomah Books), which challenges teenagers to fulfill their potential and defy the world’s low expectations of them. Although the world views teenagers as irresponsible and adolescence as a vacation, “God calls us to be exemplary,” Alex says, adding that adolescence is really a “launching pad for life.”

The Harris brothers challenge teens to intentionally do five kinds of things:

1. Things that are outside your comfort zone.
   1. Things that go beyond what is expected or required.
   2. Things that are too big to accomplish alone.
   3. Things that don’t earn an immediate payoff.
   4. Things that challenge the cultural norm.

How can you encourage your teenagers to become heroes for God?

TIPS:

Not all superheroes have abs of steel. The small-group resource Guy Talk, Girl Talk (Simply Youth Ministry) offers these insights into real-life heroes:

• Strength comes from recognizing God, the source of strength. Heroes shouldn’t rely on themselves; only God is omnipotent, or all-powerful (see Isaiah 50:2).
• Strength comes from weakness. This seeming contradiction shows that when you recognize that you need help, you become willing to rely on God’s strength (see 2 Corinthians 12:10).
• Hard times build strength. God uses troubles and challenges to test and grow our faith (see James 1:2-4). During tough times, we learn to trust God with our weakest moments so that other people can see his strength.
• Real-life heroes recognize that they’re significant enough to be part of God’s plan. God doesn’t need our help, but he does use us. He created each of us with value, and that means we’re equipped to fit perfectly into what he wants to accomplish here on earth (see Jeremiah 29:11).