There's something that pulls at my heart every time I interact with teenagers.
It's the feeling you get when you can sense that something bad is going to happen.
The feeling of regret after you've passed up an incredible opportunity.
It's that knot in your stomach feeling. [Ever have that?]
I honestly believe that it's the longing for my generation to whole-heartedly seek after God that gives me this feeling.
If you could put it this way, I would say it's 'my people group' to reach for Him.
That is the inspiration for this blog post along with the need to prepare for my speech tomorrow!
If you are a teenager, I hope you will continue to read this and hopefully, by God's grace, be encouraged to use all of your energy for Him, and Him alone!
Everyone has, is, or will go through a time in life in which they are called a teenager. These are foundational years that prepare you for your future. These years begin the mold of who you are and who you will become. As a teenager, you are going to be faced with decisions that may not seem very important, but to tell you the truth, they are. Every decision, whether great or small, can effect who you will become. These years won't and CANNOT be replaced, so you need to make sure that you are carefully making decisions and following the path that God has for you!
There is an expectation for teenagers in this world, and it is completely different than God's idea of who we should be. There is a norm for teenagers, but it doesn't need to be the expectation. The world expects us to be lazy, disrespectful, undisciplined, do-what-we-want, monsters. It sounds crazy, I know, but when you look at what people think we will accomplish during these years, it isn't much. They expect us to party, hate school, do what we want when we want, and have fun all the time. Really what that is, is wasting time. God didn't give us these years to waste. We are to use these years to prepare us for the future. Don't give in to the expectation. Give it up!
One of the big choices that effects people is the choice of friends. We all have friends and we love to be with them. But, in case you didn't know, these people that we spend a lot of time with, can impact our lives more than we realize. Sometimes it's for the better, and sometimes it's for the worse. You don't want to have friends that are going to lead you on a path to a destination you don't want to reach. Your close friends should be chosen wisely. Make sure the people you are with the most are influencing you in all the right areas of life and that they are wanting what is best for you!
You also need to be a friend! You can't take, take, take in a relationship and not expect to give. That also means that you need to be a friend who is leading others in the right direction. You want to be encouraging your friends in their faith and helping them through the tuff things in life. Make sure you are benefiting, not hurting their lives!
Another important decision that we as teenagers need to make is how we are going to spend our time. We have quite a bit of free time to do whatever we want. It is important that we spend it wisely. Time can fly by and before we know it, we have wasted an hour or two. The important thing isn't how much free time you have vs. your buddies amount of spare time, it's how you spend it. You can surf the Internet, play computer games, watch movies, read books, and hang out with your friends and those things aren't wrong, but how much do they really benefit us? Are they helping us build our relationship with God? A lot of those things are usually just for fun, and that isn't wrong either, but having fun shouldn't be the basis of our decision on how we are going to spend the next hour or two. These moments of free time here and there could be spent in the Word, praying, journaling, or building friendships that need to be pursued. Nobody can judge how you spend your time, that's between you and God, but I want to encourage you to make sure it is really helping you, and that you aren't just having fun.
There are many more decisions that we as teenagers face, but I won't share all of them now. I want to encourage you to make sure that each and every decision, whether great or small, is made carefully. There is a four word question that has taken new meaning for me recently.
"What would Jesus Do?"
Now your probably like, "Really, RaVonne? That's an old quote!"
Ya, really! If it seems like such an old and easy quote, than use it to make your decisions. I have found out that if I base my decisions on that question, the answers are very clear.
So I want to encourage you to try it! Use those four words to make your decisions! It won't be easy to always do the right thing, but the reward is so much greater!
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