Section 7—Adolescence and Youth
Chapter 32—Infatuation and Blind Love (Part 3)
[See Section V, “Life’s Energizing Force.]
Why Youth Prefer Company of Youth—Why the young feel more liberty when the older ones are absent is: they are with those of their kind. Each thinks he is as good as the other. All fail of the mark but measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves, and neglect the only perfect and true standard. Jesus is the True Pattern. His self-sacrificing life is our example.—Testimonies for the Church 1:154, 155 (1857).
A Young Lady Counseled to Guard the Affections—You are altogether too free with your affections and would, if left to your own course of action, make a lifelong mistake. Do not sell yourself at a cheap market. Do not be free with any gentleman student. Consider that you are preparing to do a work for the Master, that in order to act well your part, and render back the talents to Him who has given them to you, and to hear the precious commendation from His lips, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23), you must take heed and not be careless of your associations.
In order to act your part in the service of God you must go forth with the advantages of as thorough an intellectual training as possible. You need a vigorous, symmetrical development of the mental capabilities, a graceful, Christian, many-sided development of culture, to be a true worker for God. You need your taste and your imagination chastened and refined and all your aspirations made pure by habitual self-control. You need to move from high, elevated motives. Gather all the efficiency you can, making the most of your opportunities for the education and training of the character to fill any position which the Lord may assign you. You need so much a balance wheel in judicious counsel. Do not despise advice.—Letter 23, 1893.
Discipline Yourself—You will be inclined to accept the attention of those who are your inferiors in everything. You must be made wiser through the grace of Christ. You must consider every step in the light [of the fact] that you are not your own; you are bought with a price. May the Lord be your Counselor. Do nothing to impair or cripple your efficiency. Deal faithfully with yourself; with painstaking effort discipline yourself. The grace of Jesus Christ will help you at every step if you will be teachable and considerate.
I write you this now, and will write again erelong, for as the mistake of your past life has been set before me, I dare not withhold most earnest entreaties that you hold yourself strictly to discipline….
Be not led astray into any false paths and do not show a preference for the society of young men, for you will not only injure your own reputation and future prospects, but you will raise hopes and expectations in the minds of those to whom you show preference, and they will become as if bewitched with love-sick sentimentalism and spoil their student life. You and they are at the school for the purpose of obtaining an education to qualify you in intellect and character for greater usefulness in this life and for the future immortal life. Make no mistake in receiving attentions or giving encouragement to any young man. The Lord has designated that He has a work for you to do. Let it be your motive to answer the mind and will of God, and not to follow your own inclination and be bound up in future destiny with cords like bands of steel.—Letter 23, 1893
Wrong Attachments Can Impair Mental Powers (counsel to a girl of eighteen)—You have no right to place your affections on any young man without your father’s and your mother’s full sanction. You are but a child, and for you to show a preference for any young man without the full knowledge and sanction of your father is to dishonor him. Your attachment to this young man is robbing you of a peaceful mind and of healthful sleep. It is filling your mind with foolish fancies and with sentimentalism. It is retarding you in your studies and is working serious evil to your mental and physical powers. If opposed, you become irritable and low spirited.—Letter 9, 1904.
School Regulations—The rules of this college [at College City in northern California] strictly guard the association of young men and young women during the school term. It is only when these rules are temporarily suspended, as is sometimes the case, that gentlemen are permitted to accompany ladies to and from public gatherings.
Our own college at Battle Creek has similar regulations, though not so stringent. Such rules are indispensable to guard the youth from the danger of premature courtship and unwise marriage. Young people are sent to school by their parents to obtain an education, not to flirt with the opposite sex. The good of society, as well as the highest interest of the students, demands that they shall not attempt to select a life partner while their own character is yet undeveloped, their judgment immature, and while they are at the same time deprived of parental care and guidance.—The Signs of the Times, March 2, 1882. (Fundamentals of Christian Education, 62.)
Factors of Age, Conditions, and Turn of Mind—In all our dealings with students, age and character must be taken into account. We cannot treat the young and the old just alike. There are circumstances under which men and women of sound experience and good standing may be granted some privileges not given to the younger students. The age, the conditions, and the turn of mind must be taken into consideration. We must be wisely considerate in all our work. But we must not lessen our firmness and vigilance in dealing with students of all ages or our strictness in forbidding the unprofitable and unwise association of young and immature students.—Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 101 (1913).
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/77.1527#1557
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the privilege of prayer and for knowing that through the name of Your Son we may expect what we ask, because we ask according to Your will to be like Jesus. Please bless us to commit to doing right with the motive of divine love: overcoming every tendency to sin against You. Please grant to us a pure, wholesome, consistent Christian life, which is obtained by daily studying Your Word, the Holy Bible, under the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, to behold and reflect the character of Jesus to each other and to the world. Like Jesus, please bless us to not be conformed to this world, but to be truly transformed into the persons You would have us be, working fully in the service of the King: Jesus. Please bless us truly to contemplate the life of Christ and to allow Your Word to develop within us that true religion, borne of love, which ennobles the mind, refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and makes us patient partakers of the vibrant health, purity, and holiness of Heaven. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.
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DID YOU KNOW THIS…?
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: —2 Timothy 3:16 KJV — [The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]
Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD
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