Service to Youth
By: Missionary Team
any young people are struggling, especially now with COVID and all the isolation they are facing. They are losing valuable face-to-face interactions and more than ever they feel alone. One of our four pillars here at Hard as Nails is our Service to Youth. As the days go by, this pillar is getting to be more and more important and relevant in our world. So many youth feel like they have no one to talk to about their problems; they feel like no one cares about them. We try to combat that through dynamic and relevant encounters with youth. Having someone to walk with you through your struggles and encourage you at the same time is something that many young people need.
There are many reasons why service to the youth is important, but we’ve selected a few that make the most impact. To begin, one of the key principles is being an empathetic listener. Empathy is the ability to understand or share the feeling of another person. This is so important because it helps us, the listener, to understand better how others are feeling, so we can respond more appropriately to the situation. Lots of times people are holding a lot of hurt inside because no one ever questions them and then listens. So we strive to listen to youths' problems.
Additionally, encouragement is another vital part of service to youth. In a world where everyone is competing and is worried about being better than everyone else, we tend to just focus on ourselves. So if we can take a step back every now and then, and give a family member or friend some words of encouragement, it will mean the world to them.
Finally, the last reason, which is a critical part at Hard as Nails, is the personal peer-to-peer witnesses. Since many youth think they are alone in going through their struggles, we combat that by sharing our struggles and weaknesses. We share our hurts and pains and the challenges we go through every day with our peers, so they can hopefully have someone to relate to. For example, if a kid struggles with depression he can begin to think he’s the only one who feels that way; but if he hears a missionary or even a friend share that they are also depressed and know what he feels, then he starts to realize that he's not alone and he has people who can support him and who are going through the same things he is, and it gives him hope that he didn't have before. It gives youth hope and the motivation to keep pushing.
With all this in mind, you can see a little bit of why we focus so much on serving the youth. Consequently, because we feel it is something that is very important right now. If we are able to give a few young people hope that they can get through whatever it is that they are going through, then this is all worth it. Youth who know they have other people their age, who are struggling still but continuing to reach out and strive to encourage other people their age, gives them a hope that they would not have had before.
