Parents are you listening? No, I don’t mean catching the gist – are you listening? Are you hearing the words? 16 kids – I want to pack them up and take them home.  My fear is they won’t be heard.  My prayer is they will.

The voices are strong.  The voices are shaky. The voices are transparent. The voices want to be heard.

My greatest fear is failing and letting people down
My greatest fear is going on to college
My greatest fear is being completely alone
My greatest fear doing and no one notices
My greatest fear being alone
My greatest fear is failure
My greatest fear being around people
My greatest fear not being good enough
My greatest fear is opening up
My greatest fear is the future
My greatest fear not being loved
My greatest fear being alone
My greatest fear not being accepted
My greatest fear alone in the dark
My greatest fear losing family for being who I am
My greatest fear not being good enough

We know as adults that we can’t experience joy without sadness. We can’t experience peace without fear. But, but, but my heart breaks for teens who’s greatest fear is being alone, ignored, unknown, unloved, unseen. Can there be a greater fear in life than being unseen?\

We all have our fears. As adults we have worries.

Fear of success.
Fear of failure.
Fear of letting others down.
…and on and on.

But working with Teens, a different caliber of fears are heard. They are real. They are raw. They are LOUD.

Ignored. Unknown. Unloved. Alone.

Can you hear them now? Are you listening?

When you face your fear head on, you immediately step out of your comfort zone. You enter a world of the unknown, a place you’ve never been before. You taste freedom.

Fear stops you in your tracks. Breaking through the block, takes you to a new level.  You break through the lies you tell yourself.

Who do you want to be? This is the question to the teens.  How do you want to be seen? What do you want to be known for? When your drive for who you choose to be becomes greater than your fear, the fear becomes irrelevant. You embrace the uncomfortable and charge forward demolishing the fear into tiny bits of nothing.

As we enter the final day of Teen Leadership Foundation, these 16 future leaders are embracing their story.  As Dr. Seuss says, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out.”  The lesson of the day.

Today is the defining moment for these teens.  The line is drawn in the sand. Their life begins now – in new ways, with new understanding.  They own their story, they Run to the Roar and fears go up in flames!