The lost generation

Okay, I guess the best way to get into this is to just do it so here goes. Like I said in my profile I work as a Youth Pastor in my church, so, no surprise I have very strong religious beliefs. Since I am also a Baptist those religious beliefs tend to be conservative in nature. Probably not conservative enough for some and definitely too conservative for others. Oh well, can't please everyone right. One thing I notice as I work with the youth in our church (we have teens from 3 different middle schools and 2 different high schools)is that there are a lot of confused kids that are trying to find answers but are looking in all the wrong places. I hear alot that the youth of today are rude, inconsiderate, have no values or morals and the list goes on. My question to these statements is. What happened to cause the youth of today to become this way? Is it just that there is a unusual number of "bad kids" or is it possible that the problem is deeper than just bad kids? Is it possible that the reason why we have "bad kids" is because we as adults have dropped the ball in teaching values and morals and respect and courtesy to our kids. In the Bible we are told "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set" Proverbs 22:28. As I see it too many landmarks of morality and just basic rightness (yes I know that is not a word) have not only been moved but flat out discarded. With the current culture of relativism and the anything goes mindset is it really any surprise that our kids are quickly losing any moral compass that they might have had. I work with 15-20 kids every week and just in that small sample I see a lostness that is hard to explain and even harder to overcome. They want answers, they just don't know where to look because we (the older ones who should have been preserving the landmarks)have worked hard to make sure that there was nothing that could impinge upon our "right" to do what we wanted. Now are kids are left trying to find their way without any kind of map or landmarks to lead them. Yes I know that there are some kids that have no excuse for their behavior and this is not meant to excuse poor behavior. I just believe that if we are honest with ourselves the kids of this generation are a direct result of previous generations eradicating any and all vestiges of morality so they (we) could then turn around and say that we could live how we wanted and there was no right or wrong absolutes. If we want to see our kids turn around and gain a sense of morality the change needs to start with us. We need to reset the landmarks and start investing in our kids. For the record the "landmarks" that I am referring to are the Biblical guidelines of morality and absolute truth and right and wrong. Until that happens we are deluding ourselves if we think that we will see a change in our kids and their behavior.