THE NEW STUDENT
Wendy has the typical dreams owned by the typical High School students. She wants to make friends, she wants to join some clubs, she wants to become a cheerleader, and ultimately wants to graduate and make a living for herself and her future family. There’s only one problem however. Wendy is 33 years old and stole her daughter’s identity to re-enroll in school.
That’s right. 33 year old Wendy enrolled in Ashwaubenon High School not far from Green Bay under the guise that she is a 15 year old transfer student from Pahrump, Nevada. She attended cheerleading practice even before school started, and acted in a demeanor that was consistent for a high school girl according to sources. Teachers say that she was not very good in math, and acted very emotionally when questioned about the “tragedy” of having to move away from home. Brown has had a history of identity theft, and is currently under arrest for this felony and could face up to six years in prison if and when she is convicted.
How can this happen? More importantly, why would this happen? Why would a troubled adult wish to re-visit her youth and attempt to pull off a gaffe like this one in Northern Wisconsin? Brown says that she “had no childhood and was trying to regain a part of her life she missed.” But in all reality, Brown was wishing to circumvent her adulthood maturity and live life on the basis of what makes her happy rather than what makes a person responsible. In other words, she was refusing to grow up.
And growing up is something we all must do, especially spiritually. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 3:2 states “I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready. In fact you are still not ready.” As Christians, we need to strive to eat spiritual food. But Paul was challenging the Corinthians to grow up in their faith so that they’re thinking would reflect that of an adult Christian, not just that of a child.
When it comes to spiritual growth, there was recent spiritual growth study conducted by George Barna titled “Parents Describe How They Raise Their Kids.” In it we find some interesting facts. It states: “you might expect that parents who are born again Christians would take a different approach to raising their children than did parents who have not committed their life to Christ - but that was rarely the case," Barna explained. "For instance, we found that the qualities born again parents say an effective parent must possess, the outcomes they hope to facilitate in the lives of their children, and the media monitoring process in the household was indistinguishable from the approach taken by parents who are not born again."
Parents, we must take the responsibility of feeding our children the Bible. My friends, please let us all commit to this so that our youth will be prepared in strength for the future. I believe in you so let’s work on this together.
For the complete study: check out barna.org and type in the title listed above.