One of my colleagues shared with me the other day her daughter’s class where somestudents were playing pokers, some joking around each other, and some shouting back to the teacher while the teacher gave the lecture in the front of the room. I feel sorry for some teachers who couldn’t handle the disorder and confrontation of senior classes in junior high school and for some students who really want to study but are distracted by classroom commotion. My colleague’s daughter finally decided to ask for sick leave and study at home for the upcoming senior high school entrance exam.

Do teens have to be turbulent and violent? When Jesus was twelve years old, one day he and his parents attended the Passover festival in Jerusalem. After the festival, they returned home but Jesus was not in their group. Jesus’ parents found him in the temple three days later; he was sitting among religious teachers discussing “deep questions” with them. He returned home with his parents to Nazareth and “was obedient to them.”

Jesus “ran away” from his parents for the kingdom of God. he told his parent, “You should have known that I would be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49). But he obeyed his parents for the rest of his teen years. How about our teenagers? Do they run to God or to the world? Do they obey their parents or follow the world? These “turbulent teens” need our guidance to help find their identity in God so that they won’t be turbulent but obedient and respectful.