American basketball star, Darsh Singh, a turbaned, bearded Sikh, featured this April in a Guardian Weekend piece on cyberbullying. He recalled how his online picture had been circulated with Islamophobic captions. Long before that he’d had to get used to people yelling things like "towelhead”. Since 9/11, Sikhs haven’t just been verbally insulted but have suffered ‘reprisal attacks’.
The post Sikhs and mistaken identity appeared first on OUPblog.
Today, we’ll talk about Christian teen dating and I’ll use some examples from my debut young adult novel, Mistaken Identity, to illustrate a few points. In Mistaken Identity, my debut young adult romance, Eden Morgan is a sixteen year old Christian trying her best to live for Jesus. She grew up in a Christian home and her father is a Sunday School teacher and her mother a Christian Counselor. Eden is ridiculed by her peers at times because of her faith, but she refuses to compromise even when her feelings are hurt bad enough for her to cry.
Eden makes a goal of several things she wants to accomplish during the summer vacation and believes that if she’s successful, she’ll have the best summer ever. One of them is landing the guy of her dreams. There’s certain criteria that he has to meet…he must be gorgeous, he must be a Christian, and her parents must approve.
Eden made a vow to save herself for marriage, something she feels so strongly about that it’s not even open for discussion. She’s asked out by a boy who she thinks is cute, but he’s known to paw all over the girls he dates and has the reputation for pressuring them to have sex with him. For that reason, Eden refuses to go out with him.
When her best friend, Lexi, who is a wild party girl dumps her boyfriend, Jeremy, he asks Eden to a dance. She says yes because he’s hurt and she wants to comfort him. She then begins to think about the fact that some of her peers may think she’s trying to get Jeremy to like her so he won’t go back to Lexi. She worries about her reputation because she wants to glorify God. After all, one of the goals she made for the summer was to live closer to God.
Eden has invited Lexi to church many times and prays for her salvation constantly. Of course, she’s angry when Lexi makes fun of her, but she still loves her. Events in the story unfold and their friendship dissolves. Eden comes to grips with the fact that she can never trust her again, but will still try to be a friend if needed. It’s important for Christian to be there for others, including people who have hurt us emotionally, that doesn’t mean we have to be their best friend though.
Teenage life can be so hard. We all want to feel like we fit in and we want to be liked and respected by others. Sometimes, it’s hard to do the right thing in a world that has gone so wrong. I’ll leave you with one thought. My elderly father-in-law has a favorite saying, “For every action, there is a reaction.” This is a reminder to me that for every action, there will be consequences for me, good or bad.
K.Dawn can be found on her website, Facebook, and twitter.
What do you think about teens dating?
