Passage and Updates

Hope that everyone is having a great week!

This week's "Recommit" passage is Psalm 119:9-12. It is a great scripture that speaks to the importance of having a wise and godly focus. I think that it could be a great starting point for a conversation with your teen about the things that they (and us as adults) fill our time, hearts, and minds with. So, please mediate over this passage and talk about it as a family. On Wednesday, we will have a discussion about this passage in class.

Updates:
If you have a teen going on the Spring Retreat it would be great for me to know ASAP for our planning purposes. We won't leave until after dinner on Friday (6 or 7 range) and will return by the end of church on Sunday AM. If you have additional questions about schedule, like if your teen has to come late or leave for a little while for a game or something, then please talk to me about that and let's see what we can work out! It's going to be a great weekend that will hopefully help our teens to grow spiritually and encourage them to finish off the school year strong.

Mission Trips- official sign-ups will begin in a couple of weeks, but if you need to mark your calendars, Chicago will be June 4-6 and the Murphy will be July 20-25.

Passage of the week: Philippians 4:4-7

It's a new week and time for a new verse to commit to meditating on and putting into practice. This week, as I was thinking about being "Renewed", it struck me at just how busy we are. How much time do we make in our life to let God really work in it, or shall we say, renew us? Do we slow down from our busyness and frustrations to see God and honor him? Do we recognize how He's working...or even give him time to work? Or, would rather figure out everything on our own? In turn, I started thinking about the loads of stress and frustrations that can end up weighing us down due to hurried and chaotic lives in which we feel we must solve every concern on our own. Some stresses are self-made, others are from incidents beyond our control. As Christians, I don't think we are called to carry such a burden of stress and anxiety on our own. Instead, I think that we are blessed to have a God that loves us and wants to give us reason to celebrate!

Philippians 4:4-7 is an encouraging scripture about finding God's peace and avoiding fixation on worldly stresses. Hopefully you put this passage on your heart this week and carry it with you as a reminder about our call to rejoice in God and ability to pull from His help in times that bring anxiety into our lives.

Weekly "Commit Scripture"

I hope that some of you guys memorized and meditated on Romans 12:1-2 last week. Greg rewarded those you that did by preaching on it Sunday morning. It's so cool when the preacher talks about something that you already know so that you can sleep through the sermon! Ha.

I really hope that as we encourage our teens (and families) to recommit to the Scripture this year as part of our theme of "Renew" that you will keep your teen on task to and have some conversations with them about this weekly meditative scriptures. It's and awesome opportunity to have some time as a family to chew on a small morsel of scripture, and then digest it together while it fills you and makes you stronger!

This week's passage is Proverbs 4:23-25. Make sure to read the context, as it comes from a great Proverb about the power of learning following God's wisdom.

Each Monday I will put the scripture on the blog. Hope that you will come check it out and then make some comments about that passage. Let's be renewed with each other as we walk through 2010!