1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young” 

Isn’t that a great verse?  I’ve always loved this verse because it confirms that God loves the young people just as much as everyone else.  Sometimes I think that our youth feel like they are waiting for so many things that they don’t feel as important right now.  They wait until they go to high school, they wait until they can drive, they’re waiting to see which college will accept them… Yet these instructions for the church were written to Timothy, a young pastor, not an older, more mature one.

David was anointed as king when he was a young man, the youngest of all his brothers in a time when the oldest had all the rights.

Mary and Joseph were just teenagers when they were selected by God to care for Jesus.

I think an important part of our mission as the ministry group for the youth is to show them how important they are to God right now.  They will have questions and doubts and we need to guide them through these, not figure everything out for them.

On this Martin Luther King Day, we have an example from this man who had a gift of prophecy and had a dream that resonated with many Americans.  He had doubts as a teenager, even as he was raised in the church, the son of a preacher.  He was often skeptical of many of our Christian beliefs.  At the age of thirteen, he said that he didn’t believe that Jesus was resurrected in his physical body during his Sunday School class.  I wonder how that went over lunch?  He said that doubts sprang up all the time.  But he worked through those doubts.  I have a feeling that there were adults who walked alongside him during this time.

So while I may often want to have the answers for my children and the middle school girls I work with here at HBC, I need to remain mindful that they are important to God and they are building their faith.

– Michelle Vaughn