The treatment of young people

I feel the need to ask this: as Christians, why do we allow society to dictate how much we can help people? In fact, if we strive to be decent members of society, why do we allow the "governors" of society to dictate our actions?

Here's the issue: I believe that when we are with other people, we ought to treat them as if they were one of our own family. Which means that girls should be treated as sisters, boys should be treated as brothers; older ladies given the respect of mothers, older men the respect of fathers; young girls treated as daughters and young boys treated as sons.

My experience tells me that when this happens, people feel loved and wanted, they feel a part of something. They know someone cares about them. It creates an environment for excellent growth (physical, mental, psychological, spiritual, emotional, etc).

I can accept that some people have family situations which are not good role models, but if we strive to be better people - if we strive to make our own family better than the one we were brought up in - then there can only be positive change.

Yet although society allows for a more familial interaction with peers and older people, they have drawn a line at the age of 18. Younger people who are not family are not allowed to be treated as if they were family. Which means that if their home situation is not good, then they can't get a good role model anywhere else. They are kept at a distance and interaction between an over-18 and an under-18 is made "professional."

I vote we kick professionalism in the head when it comes to people - especially when it comes to under-18s. We should think of how we would treat our own kids and treat other people's kids likewise. We should ask ourselves how we expect other people to treat our own kids... then strive to be better than that!

Should we leave young people stranded for fear of how it might look if we were on our own with them, making sure they returned home safely? Should we just watch as a young person cries for fear of what others may think if we were to put a comforting arm around them? Should we avoid telling young people off for fear of others thinking we were shouting abuse? Should we avoid encouraging young people and paying them compliments for fear of others thinking of us as "grooming" them?

No, that's ridiculous. We should have more respect than that. We should treat young people as they deserve to be treated. They are members of our society. More than that, they are the future of our society.