Our Sons’ Bibs

A new word has developed to describe a phenomenon in our society.

It affects us generally as a culture and also specifically as families.  It will certainly have greater impact as we have children who are out of their childhood.

Adultlescents.

I think John Piper addresses this issue from many different aspects with a response for the church.

However, I think it might help equip us with tools and goals in our intentional relationship with our children if we generally replaced the word “church” with “our family” or “our family will have a church which…”

I have begun rethinking some of my ideas and views through the challenges that Dr. Piper presents here. Aspects I hadn’t thought of.   It’s tough.  Not like life was in the ’40′s and previous generations.

For example, extended education for my sons by necessity does delay their full entrance into society as fully operating adults.  Marriage is a huge key to that maturity.  So what is the balanced philosophy of getting married during schooling rather than waiting until a man is ready to provide for his family?  I don’t know. But I am thinking it through and will be discussing this article and its implications and ideas with my son at home.

Even if your children aren’t Adultlescents, they are submerged in a culture full of them as you are. And you will know many people who are struggling with this issue. Adutlescents is becoming the standard not the exception.  Where am I fostering this in my children’s lives?

What kind of Bib will  your son wear?

This

or  this

You may help make that difference!

We need to operate in Grace but with Wisdom as well.  Go read the rest of the blog http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/a-church-based-hope-for-adultolescents

Resting in Grace,
Cheryl

A Church-Based Hope for ‘Adultolescents’
John Piper

Christian Smith, professor of sociology at Notre Dame, wrote in the most recent Books and Culture a review of six books that deal with the new phenomenon of “adultolescence”—that is, the postponement of adulthood into the thirties. I want to relate this phenomenon to the church. But first here is a summary from Smith’s article of what it is and how it came about.
What is Adultolescence?

Smith writes,

“Teenager” and “adolescence” as representing a distinct stage of life were very much 20th-century inventions, brought into being by changes in mass education, child labor laws, urbanization and suburbanization, mass consumerism, and the media. Similarly, a new, distinct, and important stage in life, situated between the teenage years and full-fledged adulthood, has emerged in our culture in recent decades—reshaping the meaning of self, youth, relationships, and life commitments as well as a variety of behaviors and dispositions among the young.

What has emerged from this new situation has been variously labeled “extended adolescence,” “youthhood,” “adultolescence,” “young adulthood,” the “twenty-somethings,” and “emerging adulthood.”

Go read the rest of the article.  It should give you plenty to think about.

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