Each Wednesday night, anywhere from 7-10 young ladies pile
in my little living room, eager to study the word of God. I never saw it in my stars to lead a small
group of middle and high school aged girls, but The Lord had plans that I never
imagined. Over the last year, my heart
has been knitted with theirs and I like to think of myself as their cool big
sister…because heaven knows I am not old enough to be a mom. Ok, ok... so maybe I am. Yikes!
You parents out there will understand what I mean by the
term “learn from my mistakes”. Although I have no biological children, I can still pass this on to my “spiritual
children”. When I was their age, making
bad choices was my hobby. It’s what I was
good at. And trust me when I say I was
no amateur. You could follow me around
and you’re bound to see the majority of decisions I made on a daily basis at
that age end up in disaster. Why? Because I made decisions based on what Katy
wanted. It was all about me.
Ok, now back to small group.
One of the things I remind the girls of no less than four times on a given
Wednesday is that the choices they make now matter. I am pretty sure I thought my teenage years
were mulligan years and that they didn’t count.
But as I have grown, I see that every single choice we make echoes into
eternity. I want these precious girls to
learn from the mistakes I made when I was their age.
I have a prayer that I pray each day that helps focus my
heart on the One who deserves all of my attention. It focuses on today, and reminds me that life
is a gift…one to be received one day at a time.
It’s simple, but it’s life-altering and life-giving.
“Lord, I give you my “yes” today.”
See, I told you! Simple!
But it changes the very core of who I am.
No matter what you ask Lord, you have my “yes
today”.
I cannot help but think of the students who gave
their very last “yes” to Jesus when Christopher Harper Mercer walked into Umpqua
Community College with one question in mind: “are you a Christian?” It stopped me in my tracks to read that in
the headlines. These faithful-until-death-souls gave Jesus their ultimate and final "yes". And in an unfortunate act of violence…within minutes…saw the Lord. Wow. So, I put myself in that situation… you see, it’s easy to give the
Lord my “yes today” when everything seems ok.
But what about when I am standing in the very face of persecution?
It is my prayer that when those days come, even
if it means it's my last, that I will say…”Lord, I give you my yes….EVEN today”.
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:68
I led the middle school Wednesday night group at my school for a few years. It was very different from my years teaching Sunday School classes to 4 year olds. But, I was a middle school teacher so it seemed appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI am retired from teaching now, but I just received a letter from a former student. She is graduating from high school on Thursday and wrote to tell me that she is headed off to Cal State Monterey because of everything I taught her in middle school. Tears in my eyes ...
Keep doing what you are doing. We do make a difference.