Articles
Lessons From Young People
The start of this year was so exciting to me. We began our year with our second Building Lives Around Sound Truth (B.L.A.S.T) In that study we tried to help our young people see the great need to begin early to form good habits, be careful about choosing their friends and having a strong desire to grow to be spiritually minded. The young people capped the day by arranging and conducting a singing that evening.
It is so encouraging to see our young people be so interested in spiritual things. Their passion for the Lord, His word, and His worship fuel us. I appreciate their idealism. They remind me of what it is like before becoming jaded or letting reality dull my sight of what we can truly be for the Lord. As young people, they do not know what they do not know. As we get a little older what we know becomes too much. Everything gets filtered through our senses of our experiences. Then we begin to see through those eyes and reality blinds us to idealism.
I remember when Codie was in the 7th grade. He wanted to play the alto saxophone. So we arranged to buy one for him. When we got it home, he took it out and blew on it. The most awful shrill sound came out. He dropped it away from his mouth and said, “I am a little rusty.” He did not know he could not play it. He did not know what he did not know. Further, we did not tell him he could not play it. Had that been me, I would have said, “I can’t play this and there is no use trying.”
Our young people do not know the challenges that life under the sun will throw at them. They do not know that they can’t do some things. Shush! Don’t tell them. But think about it: our young people may not know, but maybe we older ones know too much from life under the sun. Maybe we need to revive that idealism of our youth and stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones. Instead of knowing we can’t do a thing, renew that idealism that said, “I can.”
I get to choose how I react to whatever challenge comes before me. I get to choose fear or faith. I get to choose what I have always done or stretch to learn something new. I get to choose to hate or love. I get to choose to try or sit and let others grow. The truth is, what we think we know we really do not know. We simply know our reaction. Life is successfully lived by faith. Faith says, “I trust God.” I can conquer those mountains and those giants.
Let’s catch their idealism. Let’s catch their enthusiasm for the Lord.
Rickie
