Every other Sunday night, I have a pleasure of hosting youth group in my home. I have to tell you that it is the highlight of my Sundays. I LOVE their ideas, thoughts on life, and listening to their stories from the trenches of high school life. They are an inspiration to their peers and to me. They make me think WAY harder about my own faith with their questions sometimes than I do on my own.
Today, I prepared a talk about comparing high school to the creme center of an Oreo cookie. On the one side, you have the cookie childhood. The time when you are building a scaffolding of who you are and listening to others, watching others, and learning about the gifts and talents that God gave you. On the other end of the Oreo, you have adulthood. It sits on top, filled with priorities and responsibilities. The completes the cookie. You wouldn't have an Oreo without the top and the bottom cookie.
Then you have the creme center! THE BEST PART! (in my opinion of the cookie) In life, you have high school and your twenties. This evening, we used double stuff Oreos for this purpose. All of them are in the first creme layer of their life. The time when they get to be different than the hard cookie exterior, and really dare to be different. It is the time of their life that they will never forget, and like eating an Oreo, the time (those of us who are finished with that stage) sometimes choose to go for first when eating!
As a person in the process of making the top of my Oreo life, I think back to all the creme center I experienced and am thankful for all of it. The bad choices, the mistakes, the friends that I lost contact with, the friends still in my life, the trouble I got in to. I can't change it. I had to learn from it. It is hard to believe that life moves this quickly. I think that Ferris Bueller had it right; you have to stop and look around one in awhile or you'll miss it.
At the end of the talk, we discussed who we wanted to be. And if we felt, "free" to be yourself. We listened to the song "Free to be Me" and discussed the lyrics. One of the lyrics really struck me. "I try to put the pieces together, but perfection is my enemy." I am not perfect my any means! Sometimes I feel that striving for perfection is my biggest downfall. I know that God already has great plans for me (Eph 2:10- For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them) and that I need to trust in Him. The best lyric in the song, "On my own I'm so clumsy, but on Your shoulders I can see. I'm free to be me." LOVE IT! Matthew 28:20- And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. Love unending.
Our closer, was to take your name and write one word for each letter that you wanted people to know about you. It was challenge. Have you ever thought about what you think of yourself and then how others perceive you? If you had to wear a billboard on a street with all of your strengths and flaws exposed, could you do it? Jesus was betrayed, persecuted, beaten, and crucified for being himself. He never complained about God's plan for him. He died for all of our imperfections. Amazing. His death allowed me to live all the parts of my Oreo life, and it allows me to be "free to be me."
I thank God this evening for including this amazing experience with the youth in my plan. They help me encounter Christ in a different way every time we meet. They make me a better person by being able to walk in Christ's footsteps and share His word. :)
AMEN!
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