Sunday in the Park

Sometimes we expect too little from our young people. We think we have to entertain them to make them happy.  We helicopter overhead and anxiously check their pulse every few seconds. We compare churches and programs and wonder if we’re doing enough!  Here’s an idea: Give them a mission for God. They will surprise you and you will find that patience is a virtue! For example look at these two young women that I know.

Young lady #1: After a week as a junior counselor at a camp for foster kids, experienced counselors wonder at the grace and command of a 16 year old. She is a master of loving and being firm with troubled kids. They respond to her with deep affection. It helps that she has two young siblings at home that she often takes responsibility! She looks very tired in church this week, but jubilant!

Young lady #2 is back in 'youth group at the park' after 3 weeks as a summer counselor at a horse camp. She exhibits a fresh command of her relationship with God. She talks of becoming exhausted and needing to learn new ways to rely on God and be refreshed in Him. She talks of encouraging younger girls and teaching them to ride. In fact she can’t stop talking. There was one girl, she says, who asserted ‘I don’t believe in God’ at the beginning of the week. By week’s end she responded to Christ in faith.  As our youth group went to prayer she suggested - ‘Why don’t we do popcorn prayer? That way everyone can participate.’  I thought, ‘What a good idea!’  This young lady was different person. 

Each had left a ‘teen’ and returned a ‘minister’!  How cool is that?