leader are all interested in the teen-agers and are trying to show them the right way.  At times the teen-ager thinks his parents or other spiritual instructors are right, but the crowd at school, and often the teacher, use their influences to pull him the other way.  Day after day he is making decisions.  The wrong influences seek to turn the teen-ager away from morality and God’s Word but they do not give anything to take its place in his heart or erase guilty feelings.  Therefore he finds emptiness within, so is compelled to continue to seek something else to satisfy him.  Then he is led deeper into grosser evils, trying to “handle” his inner longings.

Some might say, “But how do you know?” I know because I went through those years and I know the influences to which I was exposed.  One time I wanted a certain thing or would want to do a certain thing but then later I didn’t like or want it.  Some at school would present their ideas and my parents and spiritual advisers presented their ideas.  In my mind I was continually weighing out what was right or what I really wanted to do.

As we think of the young boy who died of continually taking drugs and felt that he could “handle” his own life, we see how he chose to travel the wrong road.  Even though his buddies saw what had happened to him they were so stuck on drugs that they, too, thought they could still “handle” their lives.  What a mistake they are making and I am sure you are convinced of that fact.  None of us are able to handle our own lives.  When we are born we have within our very nature a bent toward evil.  That bent toward evil has to be curbed.  God gave children parents because they needed help to face life and to curb that which was within them that would lead them to the wrong path.  Children and teen-agers should recognize this fact and listen to them.  Even if you do not want to admit it, you can’t handle your own life without the aid of your parents.  Furthermore you can’t handle your life and walk the right path without God’s help.  The devil works through the influences of others to lead you astray.  Only through the power of God can the power of the devil be broken, the bent toward evil be destroyed, and you be able to do the right or choose the right path.  Never feel that you can handle your own life.  No man, woman, child, or teen-ager can handle his life or obey the Word of God, which teaches him the way to live in this life and be ready to die, without help from outside of himself.

In my early teen-age life there were two verses of Scripture that I had learned by memory which were a guide to me.  One was, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord:  for this is right,” Eph. 6:1.  The other one was, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16.  The first one made me know that God would bless me if I obeyed my parents.  Many times my idea of