You are not alone.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”- Philippians 4:7-9. I have been going to youth group for almost four years now, and I have seen a lot of people come and go. I have herd lots of stories and learned a lot about teen struggles. Through all the struggles we teens have there is something we all have in common, “You are not alone”! I always used to think I was the only one going through stuff, that no one would understand but there is always more than enough young people going through the exact same thing. Teens keep their problems hidden, especially Christian teens. Trust me it is always better to talk about it. Some of the most common issues, or “skeletons” have you that teens deal with are depression, anxiety, cutting, pornography, insecurities, abuse, addiction, drugs, the list is endless. One of my skeletons was, and kind of still is, is/was depression and insecurities. Being a female is no picnic especially at this age! Being insecure is horrible; it’s like being tied down in chains always looking over your shoulder, caring way to much about what people think about you. Being insecure has held me back from being me for years, but now that I have friends that I can talk to about it, it’s easier to let go and see who I really am. I mean i know so many girls who are dependent on guys to make them happy and it is just so sad. Our identiy comes from christ, not from some guy or girl. I want to view myself like Christ does, and not how the world does. Jesus says in his word” You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. – Psalms 7-14. So Jesus made me just the way he wanted me, and now I am accepting that and am learning to love myself the way God does. This is the great thing about Jesus, He wants to help us and work with us to solve our problems and realize truth. With everything we go through, we should always remember that we are never alone. These emotions are al lies from the devil. I mean people cutting themselves and depression is not of God! This is all consequences of sin, and living in it. God wants to breath truth on us all so that we can be free from bondage and live freely for him.