What's So Great About Being Young?

What's So Great About Being Young?

When’s the best time to learn how to swim? When you’re young. When’s the best time in life to learn a foreign language? When you’re young. When’s the best time to learn how to skateboard? When you’re young. Have you ever been to a skate park and watched skateboarders? I have watched little skaters performing amazing tricks with such ease and agility. There was no stiffness and they seemed very comfortable with their board. It almost seemed like a part of them. At the same time, I’ve watched daring university students who were trying to get started – late skaters. They were tense, cautious, awkward and a bit clumsy. I suspect it’s harder to learn kickflips, nose manuals and frontside lipslides when you are older.

What about the preferred stage of life to develop a close relationship with the Lord? The answer is the same. When you’re young. The Bible says:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,

before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say,

"I have no pleasure in them";

(Ecclesiastes 12:1)

It is perhaps the most likely stage of life to ignore the Lord. So many think: “I will worry about God later in life, before I die. I will get serious about my relationship with the Lord when I settle down. But not now. I’m only young. It’s time for fun and a bit of reckless, wild living and some ‘innocent’ fun.”

What case can be made for putting the Lord first early in your life? Why not wait until you’re older?

1)     The fact that the Bible tells us to remember our Creator-Owner when we are young is reason enough. Obedience and submission to the Word of God does not need supporting reasons or additional factors as to why I should obey.

2)     A young mind is keen and sharp. Youth is usually the best stage in life to study diligently your Bible, memorize verses and to successfully retain and recall the Word of God which has been stored in your heart and mind in your youth.

3)     Put the Lord first in your young life so you will be strengthened and preserved through those dangerous raging hormone and testosterone packed years in school and college and early employment.

4)     Start early with the Lord, so you can live a full life for Him and maximize your years of usefulness for the Creator and Lord. It must be a sad thing to try to get wound up for the Lord just when your mind and body are starting to wind down. Wasted years.

5)     Deliberately remember Him and pursue Him while you are young, because if you don’t, He’ll be squeezed out of your daily life by other demands and distractions. With so much vitality, energy and optimism, young people are in the fast lane of life. Exams, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, trips, part-time jobs, recreation, phone calls, online communications, career quandaries and choices and the list goes on and on.

Consider the Bible examples of young people who remembered their Creator in the days of their youth: Samuel, Esther, David, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, Mary (mother of Jesus) and others.

Cultivate a close and very real relationship with Christ. Make it a priority to talk with Him each day and to listen to Him every day. The more time you spend with a person, the more you get to know them and the deeper the relationship becomes. Busy people block out time away from work to spend quality time with their kids and romantic time with their spouse. Have you blocked out daily time to develop and deepen your relationship with Christ?

Warmly in Christ,

Peter Ramsay

Remedy Found For My Pain and Emptiness. Read Deanna Barry's Personal Story at www.heaven4sure.com; also vote in the new Quick Survey.