Steve Sikes Blog
Steve Sikes Blog
He thought it was funny. It wasn’t! He lied to me! He told me I could trust him, even if I didn’t have a helmet. He said he would just take me around the block on his new motorcycle and bring me back to the church parking lot. He didn’t!
.
I was 19 and naïve; he was 23 and our new youth minister. When he took off, I knew I was in trouble, but there was nothing I could do to stop him. He sped out of town and picked up speed exceeding 110 mph. He was laughing and I was holding on for dear life! When he finally brought me back to the church parking lot, I hopped off his cycle angrier than I’d ever been; I could have been killed!
.
In 1Timothy 4:11-12, Paul exhorts young Timothy to set an example to the believers in 5 areas: speech; conduct; love; faith; and purity.
.
My point: if we want our teens to mature in these areas, we must (as adults) live out these same character traits! Expecting our teens to become spiritually mature without our own maturation is like … asking them to ride on the back of our motorcycles as we speed down life’s highway at 110 mph! Somebody could be spiritually killed!
.
Nehemiah might not have been riding a “HOG” in Nehemiah 2:12, but by his speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity – I’d sure trust riding behind him! God is good.
.