As a high school teacher, I have had a number of conversations with teens. I especially enjoy talking with girls even though I am now considered elderly. I am fascinated with how they mature as compared to how boys mature. Girls sure are more complicated. Boys are relatively simple. (Aren't they, girls?)
I did not understand female humans very well in spite of being related to my mother and having a younger sister. After all, they weren't really girls, you know?
Having been married gets you up close and personal with the opposite sex. As I studied my wife, I fell in love with not just her as an individual, but with her femininity. When we had a daughter, I felt a special father-daughter bond that I have never lost. (Amy is 31 years old right now.)
Well, just the other day my history class was about over and three of my female students started asking me about my years as a teenager. They wanted to know about what decade it was: the 1970's ?, the 1960's?, the 1950's?, the 1850's?
They wanted to know if I had enjoyed such artists as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Sex Pistols, etc....I assured them that I knew of all of these but that I was not that familiar with their music. These girls did not understand how I could be so naive, so culturally unaware, so disconnected with reality.
In public school I am legally bound to not share my Christian testimony. I could not tell them that these artists did not share my principles and values. I could not tell them about the miracles of prayer in Christ's name for the healing of my wife and children, about the saving of our marriage, about the overwhelming fulfillment of a daily life in connection with the Holy Spirit, about the peace of mind about having peace with God.
No, I could not legally express that. And, I can only hope that I give to my students enough evidence to convict me of being a genuine Christian.
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