The Next Steps of Life

It is always amazing to see your children take their next steps in life.  Yes it was exciting to see them take their first steps in life but once they begin their life and using some of the tools that you provided them all those years of growing up, is rewarding. Fruits of the labor so to speak. All of our kids are successful in their own way and continue to form their lives as they begin, continue and mature their relationships. It is interesting to see what parts of 'our' lives that get adopted into 'their' lives. For me, it has never been about a competition with our kids.  We always have wanted them to do better than us. Make better decisions than us. Have a better life than we did. To be successful in whatever they wanted to do or be. That is always our reward.

I got the opportunity to visit their church and to watch my son teach the middle school and high school class. Something I did for many years.  He was asked to substitute one of the classes for the regular teacher who was going to be out of town that weekend.  And then the other class teacher asked them to combine theirs also. The combined class was probably far more students than I have ever had to teach (on a regular basis), their church is much larger than ours was or is now.

Over the years, I had to be very spontaneous due to the limited number of teachers in our church. Often substituting or filling in. My son had the same occasion by just being informed on the Thursday before....but then throw in other age group and you really cannot use the standard material provided.  Teaching the teens always requires spontaneity.  If you can get any of them to speak....you have to run with it. You take what you can get otherwise you end up speaking to a bunch of faces staring back at you half asleep. I know...I have done it many times.

My son did quite well. He created his own lesson for the merged class based on a lesson he heard once on the history and prophecies of the city of Tyre from Ezekiel. However he started off the class by asking the question, "Why are you here in church this morning?". You can imagine the response that you get from a bunch of sleepy teenagers.....yep..."because I was told to get in the car this morning." or "It is just the thing we have always done since I was a baby." and even "We were brainwashed from a young age." Finally after a little prodding, you get them to say that they are there because THEY want to, not because their parents forced them.

As I sat there listening to the comments, I was imagining a handful of years (maybe a large handful of years) ago when my son was the student and I was standing in front of the group. The question he asked the teens twisted in my mind as the kids responded and told how they were "guided" by their parents into the church. Most all of these kids are there and have always been there because of their parents. Even my son was originally in the church because my wife and I attended. It wasn't until later where the faith became his own. He attends not because we tell him, expect him, or force him. It is his decision. I was the only one sitting in the room that was there because of a decision I made as an adult. A different perspective.

The teens also never thought about WHY the parents want them to be in church. That it is an important message that they want them to hear.  Maybe something in our youth that we didn't get to hear ourselves. Maybe we had to struggle more than we want our kids to struggle, because of poor decisions we made along the way.  Again we wish the best for our kids......it is so exciting to see the growth and the motivation of our children to continue with a piece of what we started so many years ago. A blessing indeed. Continue to PRAY for your children my friends.