We teens can have very busy lives.
Do you ever feel like you’re being pulled in several different directions at once? We have school, jobs, homework and extra curricular activities. It can even be hard to find time to, "just think" when we have so many responsibilities.
Through all this it is important to remember one thing….
No matter how busy we can get as teens, the MOST important thing we need to do is put Christ first in our lives.
During my senior year in high school, we went on a retreat in the fall. At the retreat, there was a high ropes course which included several obstacles to “test our faith”. Part of the course included walking across a log. When we were are up high like that, the first instinct we had was to look down, we really had to focus and keep our eyes on a cross, that was on the other side. This is so similar to real life, we have to focus to keep our eyes on the cross and ignore the “distractions” of the world.
We should never be too busy with the distractions of the world to spend time with God. If we are to busy to spend time with God, then we are just too busy.
If you are a morning person, you can get up a few minutes earlier than you normally do to spend time in the Word and in prayer. If you are a night person, you can stay up a little later to have your quiet time. Spending time with God has to be your first priority.
Another way you could look at it is, since God woke us up and granted us another day, we owe Him this time.
Ultimately, our quiet time with God should be spent seeking him in all areas of our life and in any decision we may have.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) says that we should “Trust in the Lord with all (our) heart, and lean not on (our) own understanding. In all (our) ways acknowledge Him, and He will make (our) paths straight”. You may hear this verse a lot in church and youth group, but let’s dissect it piece by piece.
When we “Trust in the Lord with all (our) heart”, we are trusting that He knows what He is doing in our lives. This means that when you have an issue in your life, you should give it to God and trust that He will handle it.
“Leaning not on (our) own understanding” also ties into trusting God. We have to trust that God has a plan for our lives. This verse relates back to the ropes course I mentioned earlier. When we look down, we rely on our own understanding and fall. When we look up at the cross, we rely on God’s understanding in our lives. This is a really hard thing to do, especially for me. We are all intelligent human beings who tend to think that we can solve everything for ourselves. It takes a lot to rely on God’s understanding and not our own.
“In all (our) ways acknowledge Him, and He will make (our) paths straight.” This goes back to spending time with God each and every single day. When you do this and consult the Creator in everything, He will show you the way to go.
Spending time with God may seem like a difficult at first, but you will start to look forward to it and yearn for it as the Word of God starts to grow in and take root in your heart. In the end, you will be glad you took time out of your day to spend with the One who knows best.
Written by Emily Miller
