Helping Teens Lament

Thanks to Center for Youth Ministry Training founder and director Dietrich Kirk for sharing this Great Idea!

Kirk affirms, “Emotions are neither good nor bad. They are what guide our journey.”

He wonders, “Do we encourage teenagers to engage all of their emotions in their relationship with God?”

And he concludes, “Laments cry out to God expressing anger, hurt, sadness, and other emotions, but they are also statements of faith that we know, trust, and hope that God will hear our cry and change the circumstances.”

Lament also emboldens us to act as agents of God’s change as they help us embrace those things that cannot be changed.

Kirk offers an outline or invitation for young people to engage the process of lament:

• Opening Questions
• Psalm 6 and Psalm 13
• ‘Say Something Like’ prompts
• The Order of a Lament
• and a Sample Lament

Encouraging exploration of all emotions both invites young people to talk about their personal struggles and the hurt they see in the world as it empowers them to take both spiritual and tangible action toward changing the realities that trouble them, while embracing what cannot be changed.

Read Kirk’s post here.

Find additional Justice & Lament resources here.