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Just some encouragement....YOU ARE AWESOME

Last night, I got the opportunity to talk to our youth.  Usually, I just get the girls and sometimes put my little tidbits in every so often but Kraig has been super overwhelmed this week plus he is preparing for his sermon for Sunday....HE'S PREACHING!!!  So, he asked if I could handle the youth service.  I apprehensively said, "Sure...."  Whatever I can do to help....RIGHT!?!?!

I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to talk about, it was just putting it together...

I started with a video from the Skit Guys.  If you hadn't seen them, they are generally a funny duo that go around and tour with conferences and stuff like that.  This one is pretty serious.  I like how it shows that we are a work in progress and that God loves me enough to not leave me like I am.  I think the kids got the message.


From there I talked about Job.  If you know anything about Job....HE HAD A ROUGH LIFE.  He had many trials and tough times but he never "cursed God and died."  He continued to praise Him and had faith in God.  I shared with the kids about Job's friends that were not encouraging to him at all and just wanted him to blame God, yell at Him, and just give up.  But Job never did.  I also expressed that although Job had a rough life, he was still in good spirits.  Have you ever known someone that even though they are going through a tough time, they are still joyful?  They don't complain...they encourage others?  Now, Job did question God and ask Him "Why?"  But he was never disrespectful and remained faithful to God.  I think Job was the real deal.  

Then, I went to 1 Peter 1:6-7.  The main part of this was the first part of verse 6....

6 "So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. 7 These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold -- and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."


God tells us to 'be truly glad!'  and continues to explain we will go through tough times and trials but we have to be glad.  So, not only do we have to be glad but I think that also includes how our attitude should remain joyful, not angry and encouraging.

Life is hard.  Bad things happen.  But we have Christ, so we are not in it alone and He commands us to be glad.  So, I encouraged the kids, Kraig, and me to be encouragers instead of complainers.  I showed this video of Kid President and hopefully, we can be nice to others instead of degrade them, I feel as though that is the trend in our youth today....


Just watch the first 2 minutes or so...then he just talks about a promotion he's doing for the kids.

Anyways...I found this a cute way to be an encourager and "awesome this year"  We need to be more positive even in our hard times.  Stop playing the victim.  And go on.  God is with us and He will help us through whatever.  I hope I can remember some of these things to do throughout my days.  I want to be glad everyday and make everyday count.

Hope you can too.  Hope you know God loves you and wants you to be the perfect masterpiece He created you to be.

love you guys.  thanks for reading my soap box today :)

stay tuned....Rett had his first REAL haircut yesterday!  Pictures to be posted soon!

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