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My friend is struggling with divorce of parents

Too embarrassing for teenagers?

MY FRIEND IS STRUGGLING WITH UNPLANNED PREGNANCY
MY FRIEND IS STRUGGLING WITH DIVORCE OF PARENTS
By Josh NcDowell and Ed Stewart
Christian Focus. 64 pages. £2.99
ISBN 978-1-84550-440-3 & 978-1-84550-441-0

A series of books designed to help teenagers engage biblically with some of life’s biggest problems is an excellent idea.

These books are designed for Christian young people to read so they are equipped to help their friends in time of need (Proverbs 17.17).

I am a long way off being a teenager, so I road-tested these books on two teenagers who happen to be my daughters. Getting them to agree to read them was difficult, with one declaring, ‘ I don’t like reading’.

Undeterred, I begged, suggesting that if one of their friends was in this situation they might be glad that they had read them. The second obstacle was the covers, their verdict being, ‘They are too embarrassing!’, especially the book with ‘unplanned pregnancy’ in bold on the front.

Finally, they read a book each in the privacy of their own rooms in a single sitting. They found some of the content helpful, particularly the book on pregnancy, but the ‘true-to-life story’ format did not ring true to them because the scenarios ended too perfectly, with all the characters being Christians who behaved in an exemplary way.

These books did not fit with the messy up-and-down world they experience among their peers and they complained that they did not tackle how to support their friends who are not Christian. The books do contain a helpful mix of worldly wisdom in a biblical framework, the reality of abortion is explained clearly, as are the stages of grief in relation to the divorce of parents. They also present some clear biblical principles such as forgiveness available in Christ whatever we have done. They may be a useful tool for a youth worker’s shelf to be passed on to a teenager in crisis but the titles and covers are a huge obstacle — a girl with an unplanned pregnancy is unlikely to want to read a book with ‘unplanned pregnancy’ in bold on the front.

It is great to see an attempt to tackle these issues but perhaps another approach is needed to get over the problem of the artificiality of these scenarios. Teenagers do like to engage with ‘real lives’ who have struggled and yet found forgiveness, and strength through Christ in his gospel. Any budding authors out there?

Karen Soole,
chair of the Northern Women’s Convention