WHAT IS A REBEL?

From time to time, you may hear of teenagers who outright rebel  against their parents.  You may even personally know of a family in which a teenager seems impossible to control.  However, it is not always easy to know whether a child is really a rebel. Moreover, it can be difficult to understand why some children rebel and others-even from the same household-do not.  If parents suspect that one of their children  may be developing into an out-and-out rebel, what should they do?  To answer this, we first have to talk about what a rebel is.   

(note: in my opinion from what I have observed, a lot of kids have been spoiled too much by being given whatever they want when they want and when they don't get it, some rebel) 

Simply put, a rebel is a person who willfully and consistently  disobeys of resists and defies a higher authority.  Of course, 'foolishness is in the heart of a child.' (Proverbs 22:15) So all children resist parental and other authority at one time or another.  This is particularly true during the time of  physical and emotional development known as adolescence.  A change in any person's life will create stress, and adolescence is all about change.  Your teenage son or daughter is moving out of childhood and onto the road to adulthood.  For this reason, during the adolescent years, some parents and children have a hard time getting along.  Often parents instinctively try to put the brakes on the transition, whereas teenagers want to speed it up.

A teenager who is a rebel turns his back on parental values.  Remember, though, that a few acts of disobedience do not make a rebel.  And when it comes to spiritual matters, some children may at first show little or no interest in Bible truth, but they may not be rebels.  As a parent, do not be quick to pin a label on your child. 

Are the adolescent years of all young people characterized by rebellion against parental authority? No, not at all. Indeed, the evidence would seem to indicate that only a minority of teenagers display serious  adolescent rebellion.   Still, what of a child who obstinately and consistently rebels? What might provoke such rebellion?

Note: Send these kids who rebel like this to book camp.   I know some parents have got their heads in the ground and don't even want to admit or see that their teenagers are acting rebelliously. But they have to come out of fantasy land and see their kids for what they are and do something about it or their kids could end up going postal on someone and end up in prison.   

Next time: CAUSES OF REBELLION 

From the book: THE SECRET OF FAMILY HAPPINESS, 1996