Every Tuesday nights is High School and Junior High night at my church where I lead a group of high school girls. This week one of the other leaders was not going to be there and asked if I could lead her group of girls too. As the worship band played I began to feel a little nervous. “What would these new girls think of me? Not ever having met me, would they be receptive to my advice, my way of teaching, my boldness and tendency to tell-it-like-it-is?” I began to pray and ask God to give me words to speak to these girls. The music stopped and the Pastor began his sermon titled “The Ugly Truth” He spoke about our concept of God, our fears and the fact that we can never be separated from God. Once again I asked God what I should tell these girls. And I heard the word, “Beautiful.” What? Was that my crazy head talking to itself again? LOL! It was time. The sermon ended and I went to my section as usual. They came in packs, pulled their chairs close to me and we made a huge circle. We reviewed our notes and began to speak about the sermon. But something was missing. I didn’t feel as if I was on target. I didn’t feel my usual flow of words. I wasn’t captivating. So, I decided to ask this question, “Who here feels as if they have done so many bad things that God wants nothing to do with them? “ There was silence as they all stared at me. One by one those beautiful little arms went up into the air. I could have cried! 90% of those girls felt so guilty of their sin that they were blocking their relationship with God from growing. I told them that I prayed for what to say to them tonight and that God told me to tell them that they are BEAUTIFUL in His eyes. You see, nothing we do can ever separate us from His love. Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For those of you who have teenagers or if you are a teen, you need to know that God is always going to be there for you. You are BEAUTIFUL in His eyes and no matter what you do, that will never change. We are the ones who walk away from Him. When everyone around you sees the worst in you, He sees the best in you. When I was lost and had no direction, He never gave up on me. He changed my life, He rescued me from myself and He gave me the life I have now. His love brought me through hell and because of that I am here today typing this for you to read.
If you are going through something in your life that is killing you inside or if you are keeping a secret that is destroying you, tell someone! Don’t suffer in silence. You don’t say anything because you are afraid of what will happen but are you going to live your life in a mess forever? You can deal with the consequences of telling. You will survive. It’s better to live free and be one with God! Then, as you learn – teach.
Juju
