I was at a Youth Convention organized by my church over the weekend and it was an experience. I attended the convention with the intention to serve God and the Youths, to do the best I could to shine the light of Jesus Christ for these young ones to see Jesus. And one of the highlights of the convention was my interaction with the Youth. It gave me so much joy that they were able to share so much with me and to be honest, I really enjoy listening to the ways their minds think. LOL….writing this makes me feel oooollllddddd but I am not that old.
Anyways, the meat of today’s blog post stems from some information I was able to gather from my interaction with these youths in my church. It is sad to say that many adults in the church are not exactly doing a great job of representing Jesus Christ, many of the adults in the church are not exactly modeling Jesus Christ. Because these adults do not exactly model Christ correctly, it seems to be a stumbling block for these youths to understand the loving and perfect God that we preach to them.
As I thought about things and as I keep thinking about things, it occurred to me that this kind of situation isn’t new in the kingdom. A quick dive into scripture, we can see in different accounts by Matthew, Dr. Luke, and Mark how the disciples wanted to hinder children from going close to Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 18 verse 15, we can see that some adults brought their children along to see Jesus Christ, to perhaps have Him pray for them but for some reason, the disciples rebuked these adults for bringing their children. Perhaps, these disciples thought Jesus Christ only came for the adults, and children or youths do not matter. But I am so glad that my Jesus Christ corrected that notion immediately. Jesus tells His disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
I am almost sure that many adults recognize that the kingdom of God belongs to both young and old but they just may not recognize that they may just be hindering a youth or child from coming to Jesus Christ. Without a doubt, Jesus Christ is the standard for every Christian and He should be our focus nonetheless- these young adults, teenagers, children, and infants are influenced by the actions and in-actions of the adults in their lives and environment. And as I said earlier, many adults in the church are not modeling Christ excellently for our youths to believe or walk with Jesus Christ.
Before I go on, I would like to say that I recognize that the sample size for my deduction is small, regardless I would like to appeal to as many Christian adults as read this post to ensure they are rooted and grounded in the love of God. Moreso, I implore us to weigh our actions towards these children and Youths, let us ask ourselves -“Will Jesus do this to the children that went to Him”. We never know how a simple, “Jesus loves you” to a teenager would go a long way. I sat next to a teenager that I had never met before at the convention. I sat next to her for only about 20 minutes. I noticed that she was sleeping during the sermon so I tapped her gently and asked, “Do you want to go wash your face?” She smiled and said yes. A few minutes later she was back taking down notes from the sermon and when the General overseer made an alter call she raised her hand but when they were asked to go outside she held back. I gave her a gentle nudge and push to go outside to be prayed for. Thankfully, she did and I left the scene right after. To my surprise about an hour later, she found me in the crowd and gave me a hug and thanked me. I felt it! Jesus had won over that girl’s life and I am so thankful to God that I handled things the way I did. thankfully, I did not scream at her to wake up or treat her less than a human because she was dosing off in service. If I had handled things in the reverse, I might have hindered her from “coming to Jesus Christ” The list of things that we adults do to hinder the youths is endless, nonetheless please take time out to evaluate your lifestyle and the way you portray Jesus Christ, especially to the young ones around you.
And to my dear teenager or youth who may have felt disrespected or hated or wronged in the church, I am so sorry you felt or still feel that way. It is not the intention of Jesus Christ for you to feel like an outcast. He loves you so much and has made provision for you to seat with Him in His kingdom. If you have wandered out of the church, please come back – Jesus loves you so much.