Examples of the Nineteen Strong Wills for Strong-Willed Teens

How the Nineteen Strong Wills came to pass...

Throughout the novel, in-between their dramatic crises, the teens back up their trucks to form a circle of tailgates in their secret place in the forest. With Tiki torches flickering in the night, the teens sit on their tailgates and come up with 19 commitments that they can use to:

1. Recover from any and all injuries inflicted by anyone in their past--parent, grandparent, uncle, brother, sister, other relative, neighbor, teacher, etc.
2. Recover from any and all mistakes they've made themselves.
3. Survive any and all unjust pressures that are presently stressing their lives.
4. Prepare for a successful future.

Why the Nineteen Strong Wills shouldn't be exposed early...

The Nineteen Strong Wills are concealed within the novel. That's why you don't see them obviously numbered and listed at any place within the novel.

They are concealed so that they can be discovered by readers as the characters in the novel create and discover them. Seeing them early would destroy the impact of discovering them with the teens in the book. That's why they should never be photocopied and distributed. That would greatly compromise the effectiveness of the novel with new readers. (Besides, they are copyrighted. And they can't be copied, reproduced, and distributed.) Please, adult leaders: The novel was nine years in the designing by an author who has counseled teens for more than a quarter of a century. Don't compromise its design. Display posters of the Nineteen Strong Wills, which can be ordered from Allon Publishing, are only for people who have read the novel--for kids' rooms or for the meeting places of Teens With Wisdom Societies.

Examples of the Strong Wills for strong-willed teens
with the author's brief explanations in parentheses...

1. I will do right no matter what I think is wrong with my parents or guardians. (Teens should not be severely negatively affected by the problems of their parents or guardians whether those problems are real or imagined.)

5. I will not give my brothers or sisters or my parent's significant other's children the right to ruin my life forever. (Teens must survive the stress of the kids with whom they have no choice but to share space.)

6. I will finally leave the sins of offenders in the past where they belong. (It is vital that teens who have been molested deal with it and learn that there really is life after molestation.)

9. I will not allow my peers to pressure me away from what I believe is right by hassling me, by putting down my parents or decent friends, or by threatening to leave me out if I don't conform to what they want. (Teens who are beginning to declare their independence from childhood by acting independently of parents should not submit, bow, and conform to the controlling peer pressure of the wrong crowd. Why rebel against parents and submit to kids? What's wrong with that picture?)

12. I will always remember that God's favorite creative act is to bring good out of bad, to grow flowers out of waste--there is always hope. (Teens need to know that no mistake they have made or nothing bad that has happened to them disqualifies them from building a good life. The opposite is fortunately true: God's favorite creative act is to bring good out of bad. There is always hope! And kids always need hope...just as we adults always need hope.)