麻豆社

Good morning. The BMJ this week raises concerns about the mental health of children and I also read some other disturbing figures. According to research done at University College London, and confirmed by the Samaritans, more than a quarter of Generation Z girls and young women, those aged between 6 and 24 have self harmed at some point. It鈥檚 really worrying. One factor causing this, particularly during lockdown, has been the huge use of social media with its ubiquitous likes and dislikes, selfies and the ability of people to compare themselves to others. We now have a world of carefully posed and often edited selfies, and as Louise Perry has written a teenage girl 鈥榗an spend endless hours alone in her bedroom scrolling through photos of female bodies that she considers to be more desirable than hers.鈥�

This poses an absolutely crucial question. How can we help people to be glad to be themselves, simply as they are? To be at ease with themselves and not worried about how they compare with others?

Obviously first of all it is parents who convey a sense of self-worth to their children by their love and support-and not forgetting grandparents either. Then, crucially in those teenage years it is the peer group that makes such a difference, their kindness or cruelty. Sadly there were some who feared going back to school this week because of being picked on and bullied. And because of social media the scope to be kind or cruel to your peer group has hugely widened. How hurtful it is knowing that there is a group of girls who don鈥檛 want you to be their friend. So how wonderful it is, if you are feeling excluded, when someone includes you in their circle.

From a Christian point of view behind the love of parents, behind the kindness of your friends, behind beyond and within the universe, there is a power that affirms us as the person we are. I love the story of the Baptism of Jesus when he heard the words 鈥楾his is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased鈥� words which I believe convey the value of each one of us. This love wants us as we are, not someone else, wants us to be at home in our own skin, whatever its colour.

I once read a passage from the autobiography of a distinguished public figure, I will call him, Jonathan James Trott, in which he wrote that his first memory was at the age of three saying to himself 鈥楳y name is Jonathan James Trott, and that is a very good thing to be.鈥� I had a chuckle when I first read it but now I think, wouldn鈥檛 it be wonderful if every teenager could echo that- say their name and add 鈥渁nd that is a very good thing to be鈥�.

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