You have likely heard Adele belt out her recent hit, Rolling in the Deep. But have you heard a ten-year-old sing it like this before? I work with preteens every week, yet I never expect them to break out into song, sounding like this. (And if the ten-year-old vocalist wasn’t enough, the other two musicians are her ten- and fifteen-year-old brothers.)
Preteens have a voice. Even if we don’t expect it.
In the movie The King’s Speech, Colin Firth boldly proclaims, “I have a voice!” His passion and energy rings true, not just for a pushed-to-power king who finds himself stumbling over his words, but for the preteens we lead and pastor. Firth’s words are their words: “I have a voice!”
They need not wait for a perpetual someday to claim their words for the world to hear, but right now as fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students they have a voice that the world needs to hear. And it is our job to help them discover this voice and give it space to speak.
What are you doing to help preteens find and use the voice God gave them?
