Starting the year off right
Worship by the Fire
Sunday night was our first meeting for the fall and we had a perfect night for Worship by the Fire. Finally, a night that had a nice cool breeze and it actually was dark by the time we were finished up. Students have consistently showed up throughout the summer, even when it was 90+ degrees outside and even hotter by the fire! This time together continues to be a popular event for the youth at Sheridan. So we decided to continue it through the fall.
Quiet Time/Prayer Time
As I was preparing for the evening, I got an email from a blog that I follow and in it was a lesson on the importance of quiet time. Many of our students have been in school for just about four weeks. Enough time to get beyond the newness of the year and to start to get into full schedules and tests and projects. So I thought that it was the perfect time to remind them of the importance of carving out a little time to just be with God. To remind them that through the busy schedules and the hectic pace of the school year that spending a little time just with God can help relieve some of the stress that they can feel at times. So about midway through the worship service I asked them all to grab a stack of post-it notes and to find a quiet space and then to simply write one thing that is causing them stress on each post-it. When they came back to the circle around the fire I asked them all to place their stack of post-its in a bucket. My initial intention was to then pass that bucket around and ask each student to take a few out and hold onto them, put them up somewhere and when they saw them to remember to say a prayer for one of their peers that was stressing over that was on that post-it. Just as I was about to pass the bucket around, one of the students bravely spoke up and stated that they really didn’t want what they wrote down being shared. So we switched gears and I told them all that I would read them over and I would spend time praying over them throughout the week.
Student Stress
Monday, as I sat at my desk, I started to go through the post-its. As soon as I read the first one I knew that I had to go through them all. As I read them I realized that I needed to find a good way to keep track of the topics so I started to record what was written. As I put the last note down and started to re-read the list that I had recorded it was all that I could do to hold back the tears. My heart hurt for the things that our students had written. The honesty that was recorded, how raw they were willing to be. At that moment I realized that I needed to share it with more people. I knew that I could spend time in prayer for these students but I also realized how powerful it could be to have our entire community praying at the same time, especially following Pastor Greg’s sermon from the weekend.
A Prayer of Words
The word art that is included in this post is a collective representation of the items that the students wrote down. The bigger the size of the text the more that word was written down. I don’t have any teenagers at home yet but I have spent a fair amount of time working with them. I think that it is easy for us to forget just how difficult it can be to balance everything that we ask of teens today. I don’t have any grand illusions that there is magic solution to de-stress all of our kids. I do, however, believe that helping them discover faith as a tool to cope with the stress in their lives is one way that we can start down that path. I also believe that one way we can do that is to simply spend time in prayer for these students.
Will you join me this week in praying for our high school students?
Prayer & Devotional Resources
Dear Loving God,
Please calm the hearts and minds of our students. Daily, help your presence be felt and your love be known in each of their lives. Help students strike the balance of life, school, relationships and time with you. Help these students feel your comforting arms supporting them and the sense of a loving community of faith surrounding them. AMEN.
Hebrews 12:1-4
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Saint Theresa’s Prayer
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let his presence settle into your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom
to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Cameron McDaniel
Youth Ministries Coordinator