eZine 04.21.2009

TheSource4YM.com
	Jonathan’s Resource Ezine

• Featured Article: Jonathan brings you a message he gave last week to a room full of high school students in New Jersey about the subtlety of sin
• Youth Culture Window: The Elephant in the Room. The Growing Problem of Teenage Obesity

Episode #25 (4/11/2009)

Listen to it now for free on iTunes! (CLICK HERE) Or, if you don’t have iTunes already… jump on Apple’s web page for a free download, then click on our podcast page.

Episode Highlights:

• Find out whether Jonathan is a “cat person” or a “dog person”
• Listen to Jonathan explain David’s sin in 2 Samuel 11
• Hear about the temptations that are the most relevant to teenagers today
• Glean some insights you can share with your teens about avoiding sin in the first place

“Yeah, gimme a Number Six with cheese, a large fry, a chocolate milkshake… and a Diet Coke.”

“That’ll be $6.14, plus indigestion, plus increased health care costs, plus a shortened life expectancy. Please pull forward to the first window.”

These are just some of the costs obese teens are paying.

The Elephant in the Room… Is Actually a Human!

On a recent trip to KwaMhlanga, South Africa, my 8-person American missionary team was sharing a meal with Sifso, a 15 year-old, skinny, impoverished orphan. While eating the tasteless staple known as pap (pronounced “pop”), he asked about our children.

“Are they fat, like you (Americans)?”

Rather than be offended, it was cause to take a long, hard look in the mirror… and the reflection wasn’t pretty.

According to the fourth annual report by The Trust for America’s Health, two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight. As bad as that is, future generations don’t look any more “slim and trim.” The Center for Disease Control has found that 16.3% of teenagers are obese. This represents the highest rate of obesity among young people in American history. (To put that number in perspective, the CDC claimed only 5% of kids were obese in the 1960’s.)

A Heavy Burden
Teenage obesity has as many ill side-effects as a Double Whopper has fat grams. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic medical conditions usually accompany those who are extremely overweight. Sometimes, higher health care costs must be paid… right up until they die prematurely.