A Beautiful Thing to Watch

 The Navigators

Teenagers are profoundly influenced by their peers. This can be a bad thing, or, in the case of two young women from Colorado, a very good thing.

Allison Daniell, who works with NavYouth in Colorado Springs, saw positive peer influence at work in the lives of some of the young women in her Bible study. One of the teens, Andrea, became concerned about another tenth-grader in the group, “Lindsey.” Lindsey had a history with drugs and with taking things a little too far with the opposite sex.

One day, as Andrea and Allison were meeting one-to-one, Andrea told Allison how worried she was about Lindsey and her relationship with a new boyfriend. “Since I hadn’t heard this information from Lindsey herself, I didn’t feel like I could talk to her about it,” Allison says. “So I encouraged Andrea to talk to her.”

Allison asked Andrea what she would say to Lindsey if she had the chance. “Andrea replied with an amazing speech about Lindsey’s worth as a person and how God didn’t want her to do certain things because it wasn’t good for her. She even mentioned that it was going to affect Lindsey’s marriage some day.”

Allison suggested that Andrea invite Lindsey to coffee and tell her those very things. “Andrea actually lit up!” Allison says. Andrea texted Lindsey then and there and they agreed on a time to meet.

Before the day came for their coffee shop conversation, Andrea spent time with God and wrote out what she wanted to say. This was the first time she’d confronted a friend on this level. Then they met up for coffee, and Andrea said it all. And Lindsey listened.

“There sat two 15-year-olds in a coffee shop having an eternal conversation—one reaching out for the other and ‘snatching her from the fire’ like it says in Jude 23. I think God was so pleased.”

Since then, Andrea continues to be more and more bold with her friends in speaking truth and showing her love in a way that wants the best for them. Allison says, “It’s beautiful to watch.”

Taken from The Navigators 2010 Annual Report.