Back Biting

As a youth leader of a large church and being involved in teenagers lives for the past 5 years including my own two teenage daughters I have quite a bit of experience in the daily stuggles of a teen. Their lives are completely wrapped up in what everyone else is doing,who is dating who and what others are talking about and of course they love to text one another non-stop! They seem consumed by relationships, some good and and others not so good. Communication is vital. Many of the students have some serious struggles and hurts in their lives. My job is to listen, not judge, and be a shoulder to cry on. I love each and everyone of them dearly as if they were my own. Lately, I have been disheartened by the back biting that has been going on among them. Normally these teens are extremely close to one another and when one is hurting the others all fall in to pray and give their best advise. I have never seen such an amazing group of kids. So, I cannot figure out for the life of me why they have been so cruel to each other. There are long time friendships being broken and alot of "he said, she said" going on. It feels like a brutal attack by the devil himself. Our church had been experiencing a great revival over the past few months and now all of a sudden it is unraveling at the seams. My prayer is that we as a group will once again pull together and pray ourselves through this. We are told by God to love one another no matter what and to not judge others, lest we be judged. Romans 2:1 "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things." If you have been hurt by someones harsh words tell them how you feel. Then try to remember the things you liked about them at the beginning of your friendship and give them another chance. Forgive them. Jesus would. Matthew 6:14-15 says "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."