BEFORE GRADUATION

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.

Proverbs 22:6

Sometime in spring each year, I hear myself say, “It’s almost over.” I note that another school year is coming to an end. Because I have ministered with young people most of my life, every year I approach May and June with mixed emotions. I know how exciting it is to be finished with teachers, classes, and homework and to look forward to a summer of fun. And for high school graduates, the future seems exciting, filled with potential. But I also know of the shipwrecked lives—kids who never even make it to summer because of unrestrained celebrations at proms and other parties. It seems like every year we read of carloads of kids who are killed through drinking and driving, and other tragedies.

And as I watch seniors (Lisa, Whit, etc..) walk across the stage to receive their diplomas, I know that they will be headed for the whole range of ups and downs as they make the precarious transition into adulthood. Our future as a nation truly does rest with this generation, and I wonder what that future will hold.

I also wonder about the kind of world we are giving them. Truly my generation has made many great contributions, but we have also formed a society based on self-centeredness, materialism, and greed. It’s a violent world, filled with guns, crime, abortion, and abuse. Despite the progress and the optimism of the ’60s and ’70s, racism is on the rise again. Personal freedom and choice have come to mean that a person should have the right to do almost anything he or she wants . . . with no restraints. Families are falling apart. In addition, the obviously twisted and abnormal homosexual lifestyle is being touted as normal. And this generation has been trying its best to purge public life of every trace of biblical faith.

It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s not hopeless. There is time to change the direction . . . but it must begin with our children.

This is a good time to think about our kids . . . of all ages. We need to reach them now—we dare not wait until graduation. What are we doing to teach them the right values?

What are we doing to motivate them to serve others? What are we doing to heal their pain and meet their needs? What are we doing to lead them to Christ?

Think of what you can do to reach this generation. There is no better investment of your life.

TV or the Internet // theparentlink

When asked if they'd rather give up TV or the Internet for a week, 77% of teens said they'd forgo the tube. [mediapost.com, 4/21/09]

Among children and teens who play video games, nearly one in 10 shows multiple signs of being addicted, according to Iowa State University researcher Doug Gentile. His new study reveals that about 8.5% of game-playing youth demonstrated at least six of 11 "addiction" symptoms, ranging from skipping chores to play, to lying about how much they play, to stealing money to buy a game. Nancy Shute, a parenting blogger for U.S. News & World Report, believes the study confirms what most folks already recognize. "The bottom line: You already know if gaming is causing problems for your child and your family," she writes. "And if it is, you know the solution, too."

Inside My Weekend

Friday
½ day in the office: Final Planning for Vision Retreat
Picked up Colin and went swimming in the pool
Final prep before students and team arrive
Vision Retreat
Dunkin
Dunkin Doughnuts and Banana Splits
Finished 10:30

Saturday
Up Early
Vision Retreat 8:30 (awesome students)
Pizza for Lunch
Rest (Watched the NFL Draft)
Work on Pool (hose burst)
A little swim and then dinner at a local Mexican restaurant
Move: The Mummy III
Bed Time

Sunday
Up Early
prepped the visuals for the morning services
Left for the church at 8:15
Hung out in the middle school study
Lunch at Ruby Tuesday's
Made a visit to a student's home
Dinner with the Cuellar's at our home
In Bed Early

STUFF: Trash Message Highlights

We are in 2^nd week of STUFF….seeing what we can learn about life from everyday stuff.  Here’s what I know about trash:

 If you don’t take it out, it piles up and starts to stink.

·         The longer you wait, the nastier the job becomes!

Life is kinda the same way….we all have ‘trash’ in our lives that really doesn’t belong. We need to be willing to take out our trash otherwise it piles up and starts to stink! And…the longer we wait, the nastier and harder the job becomes!

The first step in taking out the trash is to look at the trash container! (trash can/us).

Take a LOOK

 With God

Psalms 139:23-24

 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

With yourself
With others

Take out a LOAD

Tell God you’re sorry

I John 1:9

But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.

Tell others you’re sorry

Make the change

Repeat the process a LOT!

 It’s a lifelong job

  When trash piles up we get used to it

Because we aren’t perfect, trash tends to pile up in our lives pretty quickly. Getting rid of it is something we need to do a lot.

Don’t let the trash in your life pile up……we can become pretty comfortable with stuff in our lives that other people recognize as stuff that doesn’t belong.

 

Thought for the Week 

EVERY day is TRASH day

Inside My Weekend

Friday
½ day in the office: Financial Meeting, Meeting with Construction Company
Lunch with my son and Beef O Bradys (wings)
Finished getting the pool ready to open
Went to dinner and the mall
Bought the final items needed for Baby Grace's room at Target

Home

Saturday
T-Ball game at 9:00
At the church at 10:00 to meet with the tent company
Set up tent, chairs and prepped sound for Sunday

Home at 2:30 to rest

Went to the Chapmans for dinner (great Chicken Josh)

Home early...watched a movie with the wife (made of honor)

In bed early

Sunday
Up Early
Left for the church at 7:30

Made sure everything wzas ready and in order for groundbraking service

Groundbreaking service at 10:30

Lunch at the church

Clean up and break down 3 Hours

Home and in the pool with Colin at 3:30

Made dinner at 6:00 for Colin and Ron (Summer is shopping)

Watched Stars Wars "Return of the Jedi"

In Bed Early

STUFF: Toothpaste Message Highlights

Tonight, we are kicking off a new series called STUFF. 

We’re going to take a look at some common, household stuff and see what we can learn from it. To get us started, we are going to see what we can learn about life from my arch-enemy…THE TOOTHPASTE TUBE!

 Toothbrush Illustration:  

Mouths are like a toothpaste tube

What comes out can never be put back in

If you’ve ever tried to put toothpaste back in the tube, you find out pretty quickly that it’s impossible. The same is true with our words…once they are out, they can’t be taken back.

• Saying words you shouldn’t
• making promises you can’t keep
• exaggerating
• bragging
• lying
• gossiping
• etc.

 Once the toothpaste is out…our words are out...then you’ll have to clean up the mess.

Same is true with our words….and cleaning up the mess our mouths make is always more work than controlling our mouths to start with 

• James 1:19
• Proverbs 15:1
• Matthew 5:37

 Thought for the Week

Does my MOUTH make a MESS?

PARENTS: Check out this email from Ron Luce

Friends, Something exciting happened to my family a few weeks ago. We got a call from the editors over at Charisma Magazine. They wanted to run a feature story on my family because of the parenting book we just published called ReCreate!

My wife, Katie, and I wrote ReCreate to share stories of how we made it a priority to raise Godly children and build a Christ-centered culture in the home (Charity, my middle daughter, even helped write the teen version!). It turns out that the editors at Charisma were just amazed to see all three kids in one family absolutely in love with God and pursuing them with their lives. A lot of families in ministry really struggle when it comes to their children, and they wanted to find out how we did it.

I don’t think we did anything special. It’s all in the book, but we always prayed for our kids and with our kids. And I really think the kids are doing so well because of Katie—she’s just amazing. But really what it came down to was a decision to put our kids first. After God and our marriage, our kids have been our top priority, even before ministry. That’s been the guiding principle for us as parents, and we’ve had to fight very hard to keep that focus. It wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it!

Please pray for this article! We really hope that this story in Charisma and the book itself is an encouragement and blessing to all of the families that read it. The article will be in the March issue.

Until then, you can watch some videos we recorded for each chapter in the book and order a copy online if you’re interested.

Consumed by the Call

Ron Luce

Founder and President