"Different is Beautiful"

By: Autumn Sisk

Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (NIV)

When I watch the news these days, I rarely hear anything good. Most of the news is about murders, robberies, drug busts, and wars. It is enough to depress anyone. I think to myself, “What makes people do these things”? Unfortunately, the answer is often peer pressure.

Peer pressure doesn’t just occur in your middle and high school years. It usually begins during childhood and continues throughout life. The key to overcoming peer pressure is to learn early in life to keep your eyes on the Lord and follow His will for you.

I remember in high school, as a freshman, sitting at lunch with a particular group of girls, several of whom where cheerleaders. I desperately wanted to fit in with them because they were popular and beautiful, and the boys always noticed them. I sat with them because we all had the same class before lunch and I thought it was a way to become part of the group.

Much to my surprise, one day somebody started in on the subject of “craziest places you have ever done it”! I must have shaken my head and said “What?!” a few times before realizing they weren’t kidding. I was thinking, “What the heck?! We are only 15 years old!! I haven’t even kissed a boy!! Aren’t you supposed to wait until you are married to do that??!!!” Well, they weren’t kidding, and incredibly, there were only two of us at the table that had not gone all the way with a boy.

I quickly realized that if I wanted to be part of this group, I had to do things like that. The funny thing is that they all knew that I was innocent, but they brought up that subject anyway because they wanted to embarrass me.

They succeeded, and from that day on, those girls poked fun at me every chance they got. They made fun of me for not drinking, not smoking, not cursing, not having sex, not cheating on tests, and pretty much anything else they could think of. Thank goodness I had enough sense to find some new friends and not give into their peer pressure!

It was not easy enduring their teasing. Sometimes I wanted to give in. However, in my heart I knew that the Lord wanted me to wait to have sex until I was married and that experimenting with drugs and alcohol were wrong. Thankfully, I was able to find friends with the same beliefs.

Unfortunately though, the other girl at the table…who had not given herself to a boy…didn’t fare as well as I. Not long after that day, she told me that she was sick of being a “goodie-goodie” and that she was going to have sex to prove that she could be bad. I begged her not to do it but she did anyway. My friend ended up having the worst reputation at school by our junior year. Her plan to fit in totally backfired on her. The group of girls that we desperately wanted to belong to never intended to be friends with us in the first place. My friend, Heather, found that out too late.

Those girls who we thought were “all that” ended up not being so great. Several of them had babies while in high school, many got into drugs, and none went to college. I, on the other hand, not only went to college, but also received a full scholarship and was runner-up for homecoming queen my senior year in high school. Not a single one of the “cool” girls were voted onto the homecoming court that year.

This shows that when you focus on what God wants for your life, you are able to see what is right. When you are focused on fitting in, though, you forget to ask what God wants for you and usually end up doing the exact things He doesn’t want.

Resisting peer pressure and following God’s path in your life will bring you unspeakable blessings and great joy. In addition, it will also make you a more beautiful person. Being different – standing out from the crowd – is truly beautiful.

My Prayer for Today:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the strength to overcome peer pressure. Help me to follow Your Word and keep my faith when others tease me for not following the crowd. Thank You for the rewards that await me because I have followed Your plan for my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Think About It:

Do I feel pressure from my peers to do things I know are not good for me?

Do I usually give in to peer pressure?

How can I be sure not to give in to peer pressure?

Live It:

Ask God today to send you friends who have the same beliefs as you. Surround yourself with friends who do not pressure you to do what you know you shouldn’t.

Write down the Scripture verses from this week and keep them handy when you feel pressure from others.

Write down your goals for your life. Keep in mind what effect giving in to peer pressure might have on those goals.

Power Verses:

Ephesians 5:15-18, “Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” (NIV)

Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (NIV)

Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

© 2008 by Autumn Sisk. All rights reserved.

"The Blessing Circle"

By: Katie Rath

John 1:16, “From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another.” (NIV)

“Moccasins.
Singing.
Trips to Boston.
Good seafood.
New friends.
Mountain air.
Fire trucks.
Walking barefoot.
Jokes.”

My mother has led a Bible study for our youth group since my middle school years. I’m not quite sure when she started it, but at some point she asked us kids to start a new thing, called the Blessing Circle. Whoever participated in this activity sat in an inclusive circle, and we took turns saying things we were thankful for, four words or less.

The Blessing Circle typically started out with very general answers such as “friends,” “family,” or “church.” But as we continued, variations came as we all inwardly sought to figure out the things for which we were most thankful. It almost always brought the participants to sheer laughter, announcing we were thankful for chocolate, inside jokes, orange soda, fishing, flip-flops, or the smell of freshly-cut grass. There’s nothing funny about the things we were thankful for, but I believe that we laughed the most because we identified with the small things that counted as blessings. The small things seemed to be the most important.

Inspired by my mom’s new Bible study ritual, I embarked on creating my own blessings list. I started it five years ago, and I now have over 500 entries, including the ones listed at the beginning of this devotion. When I’m most excited, when I’m angry, when I’m feeling very down, I use this list. I add to it, have sometimes deleted things, and read over it to pick my spirits back up. I include general things, yes, but when it gets down to the knitty-gritty, it’s the small things that are the most significant.

They’re not all happy things, either. Scripture tells us to be thankful even in trials, because we are made stronger because of them. And so my list includes specific fights with my friends or parents, the death of my grandfather, and breaking up with my first boyfriend. God taught me life-altering lessons in those moments, and so I am forever thankful for them.

At the very end of our Blessing Circle time, my mother would announce that the next three go-arounds would be our opportunity to thank God for these blessings. We would close our eyes and, in the spirit of prayer, offer our thanks to God for our blessings. In this way, we recognized that the big things, small things, good things, and bad things were all from God.

Being away from home, I can no longer participate in the Blessing Circle that intermittently happen at Bible studies, but I still do them myself. I call to mind things that are blessings in my life in any and every moment, allowing my heart to give thanks for even the smallest of things.

My Prayer for Today:

Precious Savior, I thank You for the small things in life. I know all of my blessings come from You. I thank You for the big events, for the opportunities You give me to praise Your name, even for the times I struggle. Help me to look at my life and see the things I need to be thankful for. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Think About It:

Am I constantly thanking God for my blessings?

What are some things I might not see as blessings right now?

How can I be a blessing to someone else?

Live It:

Alright, go ahead. Make a blessings list – you know you want to. Write the list down somewhere you can easily find it if you need it. Maybe even put it in your locker at school or in your car, and look at it often. Praise God for your blessings.

Power Verses:

Psalm 52:9, “I will praise You forever for what You have done; in Your name I will hope, for Your name is good. I will praise You in the presence of Your saints.” (NIV)

James 1:2-3, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (NIV)

Psalm 40:5, “Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count.” (NASB)

© 2008 by Katie Rath. All rights reserved.

"Hand-Me-Down Faith"

By: Daniel Darling,

Christian Author and Speaker

2 Chronicles 24:2, “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest.” (NIV)

The fact that Joash lived after his very first breath was a miracle. Born into the bloody chaos of a revolution in his country, he was the only male member of his family to survive the wicked purge of his grandmother Athalia. He survived only because his Aunt Josheba hid him in a storage closet for six years.

Joash’s life is proof positive that God keeps his promises. God promised David that a member of his family would sit on the throne of Israel forever. The Lord kept his promise to David by saving Joash’s life. You see, David was Joash’s great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather! He became king at the tender age of seven and was nurtured and guided by Josheba, and her husband, the prophet Jehoiada.

So what does this centuries-old story say to me and you? It tells us that God keeps His promises. Wilmington’s Book of Bible Lists counts 41 separate promises in the Bible -- promises you and I can claim on a daily basis. Maybe you’re having a bad day or maybe you’ve been disappointed by someone you felt you could trust. Like Joash, you can trust that God is sovereign and will keep His word. According to Dictionary.com, the meaning of sovereign is: “having supreme rank, power, or authority.”

But perhaps the larger lesson from Joash is that every young person must claim their faith as their own. Joash’s life was miraculous and he grew up mentored, discipled, and loved by a godly aunt and uncle. And yet we see that his faith was a hand-me-down faith. He never made it his own. When his aunt and uncle died and Joash had to stand on his own he quickly fell away from the Lord. He even had a prophet of God killed for telling him something he didn’t want to hear.

How can someone who grows up in a Christian home, church and school do something so terrible? The answer is that Joash and hundreds like him never established their own relationship with God. They hung on the coattails of their parents’ or pastor’s or youth leader’s spiritual experiences. That lasts for while, as you can see with Joash, but what about when you’re on your own? What happens when you go away to college? What happens when you begin a family and have to make decisions for yourself? Is your faith strong enough to sustain you?

If you’ve got a hand-me-down faith like Joash, you’ll quickly forget the promises of God and miracle of your upbringing and pursue a lie away from God. But if you make your faith your own and pursue a personal relationship with Him, you will have a strong foundation on which to stand.

My Prayer for Today:

Dear Lord, help me look at the life of Joash and learn from his mistakes. I want to glean wisdom from the godly influences in my life. I also want to let Your Word soak deeply into my heart and soul so that my faith will be strong in the storms of life. Please help me to make my faith my own. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Related Resources:

Teen People of the Bible, by Daniel Darling

Think About It:

Are my parents dragging me to church or do I genuinely want to go?

Do I know enough about what I believe to defend it or do I have to run to my pastor or my parents to find all the answers?

Is my faith deep enough to sustain me when I’m on my own in high school, college or the workplace?

Live It:

Start developing good spiritual disciplines in your life, such as studying the Bible, prayer, and going to church.

Do you know what the tenets of your faith are? Does your church have a statement of faith you can read?

Power Verses:

Romans 14:12, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” (NASB)

Psalm 119:9, “How can a young person live a clean life? By carefully reading the map of your Word.” (Message)

© 2008 by Daniel Darling. All rights reserved.

"Why Is It So Hard To Trust God?"

By: Holly Furches, Age 14

**Holly is one of our contest winners who submitted this devotion and won a full scholarship to this year’s She Speaks Conference Next Generation Track.

Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (NIV)

Why is it so hard to trust God? I’ve asked this question often over the past few months. You see, I have developed an illness that is very hard to explain. It’s like my cells that are supposed to be protecting my body are now fighting against it. Different problems have occurred throughout the year and I’ve seen many doctors concerning them. We don’t have a definite diagnosis, though they believe it is an auto-immune problem. Between tests, hospital/doctor visits and not feeling well, my illness has interfered with many things in my life. So, I guess you could say trusting God has been a rather difficult task for me and my family lately. It seems that trusting God is something most Christians struggle with on a regular basis.

As a teenage girl, I am still trying to figure out who I am and where I am going in life. I thought I was finally getting close when it seemed all I really knew was taken away from me. Basketball and music have been a big part of my life. I’ve played basketball for as long as I can remember, but this season I was unable to play. Wednesday nights I often get to help lead worship for my youth group but now I am finding it difficult to even do that.

What I’m trying to get at is that God uses hard times to define who we are. Sometimes we are so set on our ways that He may allow something difficult in our lives. We have to learn to see those times as learning experiences instead of allowing them to become a tearing down experience.

As I step back and look at my situation I wonder why I or someone else should ever not trust God. We forget so many times where God has brought us from. I am reminded of the Israelites. Even after God brought them out of slavery, parted the Red Sea, provided water in the middle of the desert and sent manna from heaven, they struggled with trusting Him. All the things God did, the miracles He worked right before their eyes, and still they didn’t trust Him!

This challenges me to think about myself, causing me to realize I am not really any different. God set me free from my bondage of sin and pulled me up out of the miry clay. He has provided for me in every way possible. I have seen Him work in such awesome and mighty ways. Why is it that I have such a hard time trusting Him? I mean, He is God, the Creator of all. Just as God said to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…,” before He formed me in my mother’s womb, He knew me. Why, then, do I find it so hard at times to trust Him?

Some days, I have felt very bitter towards God. I don’t see the big picture and I don’t understand why this is going on. I often ask God “Why me”? I think we all question God about different things and situations that He allows to happen in our lives, as if we know more than He does. We forget just who it is that we serve. It’s hard to see and accept that God allows these things because of His great love for us.

I believe it all comes down to whether we are willing to surrender to Him totally and completely, trusting Him with our lives. It’s not an easy thing to do. For me it is something I am still learning. I have to remind myself that God loves and cares for me more than anyone, even myself, and He always wants what is best for me. In life things don’t always work out quite like we plan, but that’s when we should trust God most and be prepared for whatever He has in store.

My Prayer for Today:

Lord, Help me as I learn to trust You with my life. Help me rely on You and Your power instead of myself. Lord, thank You for second chances! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Think About It:

In what areas of my life do I not trust God?

What am I relying on in place of God?

Have I forgotten where God has brought me from?

Have I surrendered all of me to Him?

Live It:

Memorize the verses below so when you don’t “feel” like trusting God you can recite them to yourself.

Read Psalm 56. I think it will be an encouragement to you.

Start journaling. I think it will help us see how God’s plan always prevails and it will help you and I trust God more.

Power Verses:

Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (NIV)

Psalm 143:8, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (NIV)

Psalm 9:10, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (NIV)

© 2008 by Holly Furches. All rights reserved.

"Mephibosheth: A Lesson in Kindness"

By: Rachel Westlund, Age 12

**Rachel is one of our contest winners who submitted this devotion and won a full scholarship to this year’s She Speaks Conference Next Generation Track.

2 Samuel 9:3, “The king asked, ‘Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?’ Ziba answered the king, ‘There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet.’" (NIV)

King Saul chased David for many years and tried many different times to kill David. King Saul was killed in a battle and David became king. Saul was so mean to David but in the end David still took in Mephibosheth, who was King Saul’s grandson. In this passage David is showing kindness to someone whose family had tried to kill him. He invited Mephibosheth to dine at his table, and not just one time but the rest of his life! Maybe you haven’t been in such an extreme situation, but I bet you have been faced with the challenge to be kind.

My family is fostering two children, and we are actually in the process of adopting them. Even though I consider them family, however, adding two more siblings to the family and sharing my family is tough! It is hard to always show love and kindness to them.

Don’t you think that is the way David felt? I bet it was an extremely hard task for him, but David was obedient to God and showed God’s love and kindness to Mephibosheth. I know that with Jesus all things are possible (Philippians 4:13). In Jesus, it is possible to show kindness to people who don’t show kindness to you. According to the Bible, we are supposed to show kindness to everyone, including our enemies, our friends, and even the people we see on the street. God says to show his kindness to others through your life.

David was called a man after God’s own heart. David’s taking in Mephibosheth is proof that David lived up to his title. To show God’s kindness, you have to be willing to stand out. Someone might make fun of you, but you are doing the right thing in showing God to others and spreading His Word. Who knows…you might even think that being kind to people is fun and it makes you feel good.

Oh yeah, don’t forget Mephibosheth! I like to think about him sitting at King David’s table with a smile on his face and a heart full of thankfulness. He must have felt loved. When I think about David and Mephibosheth, I think that it is a little bit like God and me. God is kind to me, and because of His goodness, now I get to sit at Jesus’ table, and not just once, but always!

Why do you think it is so important to show God’s kindness? I think that showing God’s kindness is a privilege and it is something we should want to do, not something we must do. In being kind to others, I have developed strong friendships with people in my community, school, and church. I encourage you to go out in your community and share God’s kindness and love today, and do it because you want to, not because you have to.

My Prayer for Today:

Dear Lord, Please help me to love You and have a loving and kind heart toward everyone, just like David did. Help me to especially love the people who are the hardest for me to love. Shine Your light in my heart. I love You and trust You to guide me to the people that need Your kindness, for You truly are a good, kind and loving God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Think About it:

Am I kind to everyone around me?

Has God led me to be kind to someone in need?

Who in my life needs God’s kindness?

Live it:

This week in the lunchroom, sit with someone who doesn’t have any friends or who has no one to sit with.

If you see someone drop something in the store or on the street, help them pick it up.

Don’t say anything mean about anyone, but instead try to say good things about everyone.

Power Verses:

Daniel 4:27, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.” (NIV)

Proverbs 19:17, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” (NIV)

© 2008 by Rachel Westlund. All rights reserved.