Today I was reminded of why I do the job I do. I am a high school teacher. The new school year coming up will be my 20th year! I love
teenagers. I love their energy and enthusiasm
for life…well most days anyway. Depends
on the day and their mood. People always
tell me “your crazy!” or “aren’t you afraid or scared of doing that job?” I always chuckle and say no way, I love my
teenagers. They are just over grown kids
in big bodies.
Today I was given a reminder of why I do what I do. I met Francisco and his family around his
sophomore year of high school. His mom
and dad joined our Sunday school class and I instantly fell in love with
them. I witnessed Francisco and his
brother get baptized shortly after joining our church. Although I never really got to know him
personally I knew who he was and knew he was a pretty good kid through working
with our youth group at church. He
graduated from high school this past May and I was super proud of him.
Francisco stood up today at church and gave his testimony to
the whole congregation. His first
statements were that he was going to say some things that even his parents didn’t
know yet. Don’t we all have those
stories that we never wanted our parents to know about? I know I did at that age. He shared his story of struggles as a kid in
junior high and some bad decisions he made to fit in with the crowd he was
hanging out with. His parents moved their
family to our town and shortly afterwards started coming to our church. Jesus turned his life completely upside down!
What a brave thing he did today getting up in front of a
large congregation to share his story.
He just turned 18 a few days ago.
Not many teenagers would be that brave to face their mom and dad while
standing up in front of their church congregation to share their story.
Francisco and Joanna, another teen in our church, are examples of how I want my chickies to turn out. To be brave and live their life for Jesus. I
want them to be bold and conquer any fears they have, to be able to stand up
before a crowd and share their love of Jesus.
I pray they don’t have to go through life altering challenges to have an
amazing testimony. I think folks can
lead ordinary lives and still have an amazing love story of what Jesus has done
for them. My own walk hasn’t been
ordinary but that’s another blog for another day.
Plant your chickies where they can have awesome role models like
Francisco or Joanna’s and Stephen’s (my 16 year olds friends that are awesome!)
or Jacie’s (my 12 year old is head over heels in love with her!) or Cruz’s and
C.J.’s (my son is in love with these boys!) or…you can place a name here.
Philippians 2:15, “so that you may
become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and
depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.”
These teens that I have named are doing just that, living
their lives for Jesus so that they can shine like stars in the universe
standing against a crooked and depraved world.
Walking boldly and courageously in a world that often contradicts His
teachings.
Live a life opposite of what the world says you should
live. I recently finished the book “Kisses
from Katie” about a 19 year old girl who left her life of comfort and many
luxuries to live in Uganda. A world away
from everything she had known to walk the walk and talk the talk of Jesus to
show love to children of a forgotten place.
Being bold and living passionately for Him. Nineteen years old and she adopted 13 girls
to give them a safe home! I want my
chickies to live boldly like this for Jesus.
Now I hope He doesn’t call them to a far country but I will cross that
bridge if I have to.
What a blessing it is to have Francisco and so many more teenagers
that I can’t even list them all in this post who are a part of my chickie’s lives. My suggestion to you is this; put older teens
in your own chickies paths that they can look up to and watch them be bold for Jesus
so that they may shine like stars in the universe too!
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