9/14/10 Being Strong For the Lord in Your Youth

What a wonderful time we had last night at our very first Bright Lights meeting! I really enjoyed meeting each of the young ladies (all 23 of them!) God has brought into this group. It was exciting to see God's hand at work last night as He brought us together to encourage each other towards Being Radiant In Godliness, Holiness & Testimony!

Here are some photos from our evening.

Doing a "get to know you" activity. Half the group sat in a circle of chairs facing out & the other half paired up with the "sitters." The partners had a minute or two to discuss their answer to a get to know you question, after the time was up the "standers" rotated to the left & discussed a different question with their new partner.

Sylvia & Amber getting acquainted...

Chatting away....Amber & Kalei...
The lesson for this meeting was "Being Strong for the Lord in Your Youth." We discussed the importance of committing to use your years as a young person to serve the Lord, not to waste them.

I asked the girls to give me some words they thought of when I mentioned a "typical American teenager." It was interesting to see what they came up with, not one of the words were positive! The list included, rebellious, lazy, disrespectful, moody, ipod/cell phone, anti-social, boyfriends, vain & many more.

Taylor & Kalei in the "balcony seating"

Eager volunteers...I had Arianna & Kalei help me mix up a disgusting concotion to illustrate the lesson...
After the concoctions was mixed up I explained that it represented the world - full of temptations & sins that may seem harmless by themselves but when you mix it all together it doesn't look or smell very good.
Would you like to smell? Taste maybe?

Then I explained how the rose represented our youth & all the potential God has placed inside of us to grown in & serve Him. He has made us beautiful & by maintaining that beauty through serving Him we are being a witness to those around us.Then we dunked the perfect, beautiful rose in the nasty gunk. This symbolized what happens when the a young lady takes the beauty & potential the Lord has given her for her youth & wastes them by getting involved with the world & allowing herself to be trapped by the enemy.
In the end I challenged the girls to make a commitment in their hearts as to whether they wanted to be like the 1st rose that ruined the years of its youth by allowing itself to be polluted by the world. Or, if they wanted to be like the rose who chose to set itself apart from the world & maintain a pure, holy testimony.
We ended our meeting with tea & fellowship! Special thanks to the girls who brought our delicious snacks!

I look forward to seeing each one of you again on September 28th, same time, same place. :) I'd encourage you to read through your lesson booklet from this week & make a written commitment to be strong for the Lord during your youth!