I rather like the Mormonad in the New Era this month. Its message is one that I wish more people (not just teenagers) would take to heart. The picture in the Mormonad shows a young boy and a teenage boy walking off of a soccer field. Presumably the younger boy has lost the game or played badly, but the older boy is putting his arm on the younger boy’s shoulder to comfort him rather than ridicule him.
Far too often we see people putting others down in order to build themselves up or just to be mean. There seems to be an entire genre of humor centered around clever, sardonic ridicule, and much of the Internet seems to thrive on it. I suppose politicians and other public figures are fair game (they asked for it, right?), but we should be aware of how our put-downs actually diminish our own stature.
For a good article on this topic, read “Is Anyone Laughing” in last February’s New Era.
Filed under: New Era | Tagged: culture, latter-day saint, Latter-day Saints, lds, magazine, magazines, mormon, mormonad, mormonads, mormons, New Era, ridicule, teen |
Mormon Magz 
Many studies have shown the immense influence which older peers (like seen here in the MormonAd) have on the developing self-esteem of children, to say nothing of the moral effect such examples of kindness can incite. The “little things” like how we treat others in situations like this are usually the biggest ones in my opinion!
Again, jnilsson, well said. One way to think of this topic is to remember your friends from your teen years and think about how they treated their siblings when you would visit them at their homes. Teenagers all want to look cool in front of their friends, and unfortunately some of them think they need to put down their little brothers and sisters in order to do so. But when you think about it, the ones you really thought they were cool were the ones who were kind and loving to their younger siblings.
thanks for this post
It inspired a poem…
I like that this picture is shown from the back-
Makes you want to be that hero-
is it possible to use this picture on my site?
You can be a hero
In the eyes of someone small
When one’s treated like a “zero”
You can help them stand up tall