Don’t forget to Breathe (Pause, Week One)
As a nursing student, I spend a lot of time listening to people breathe. Respiration rate is one of the “vital signs” that we monitor on each patient numerous times throughout the day. One day last semester, I was in charge of caring for a brand new baby on the maternity ward. She was beautiful and tiny and fresh and taking care of her was something I’d been looking forward to for weeks. As I listened to her breathing patterns, I found my mind wandering to what else I had going on that day. Unbeknownst to that little one, my day was packed- from the minute I had to leave the hospital, I was going to be booked solid through 11:30 that night- including an important exam, a presentation for work and the final dress rehearsal for my dance concert coming that weekend. As soon as I tried to focus on that baby’s breathing pattern, my mind wandered to the material I’d been studying for that afternoon, whether I’d have enough time to shower before my presentation, and if I’d gathered all of the necessary things for rehearsal that night. With so much running through my mind, I couldn’t focus on that little one at all. It finally got to the point where I had to wrap my hands around her little body so that I could feel the rise and fall of her chest to determine her breathing pattern. Luckily, it was perfectly normal- but it took me five tries to figure that out.
While this may not happen to you while trying to take vitals, you know there are times when you are so consumed with what is happening next, and what you need to worry about for tomorrow that you aren’t focused on what you’re doing right now. We consume ourselves with what will happen tomorrow and with things we can’t manage, leaving us with no room to be here in the present.
In Matthew 6: 25-34 Jesus tells us not to worry about such things. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important that food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?… But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
Many of our students don’t have a lot to worry about- and some of them do. I would guess that for this generation, the problem of not being fully present comes from being too busy, and too focused on electronics. I think text messages are where these kids struggle with being engaged in meaningful conversations, and I told them that on Sunday. I challenged our students to spend ten minutes fully engaged with God each day. To turn off all electronics, and if they get distracted, start the ten minutes over again.
I know it won’t be easy- I think the average attention span of a junior higher is something like 8 minutes, and prayer and reading the Bible are hardly as exciting as movies and video games, but I’m confident that if they can do it, they’ll realize how great it is to be in complete community with God.
-Vickie Chambers, Summer Staff
Empowering Your Student’s Faith
Amy’s decision crushed her parents. Although she was only 18, she had just announced to her parents that she was going to do one bad action for every day her parents were away on a 3 month missionary leave. Needless to say, her parents were crushed. They had done everything possible to help Amy to follow Christ with her life. She was a student leader in her youth group. She went on mission trips to Mexico and Canada. She led numerous friends to Christ. But when the time came for her to be on her own, she chose to go her own way. Within two years of Amy’s declaration to rebel, she was pregnant out of wedlock and the logical course of her earlier decision had come to pass.
Parenting is a risk. When Amy’s parents were bringing her up, probably the last thing on their minds was that she would one day turn her back on their faith, but she did. Over my 21 years as a pastor to youth, I have repeatedly been asked by parents how to encourage their student to take steps of growth in their faith. Often the question comes during a time of stress and challenge to the parent’s influence in their student’s choices. This multi-part blog post is born out of a desire to see each of our families at Rolling Hills be more effective at empowering their student’s faith and raising them to make an impact for Christ in today’s world.
Be A Positive Example To Your Student
With so many parents coming back to church and the faith of their own youth, a dilemma has begun to manifest itself. Parents who walked away from their own parent’s faith during college because of being forced to do religious activities while they were growing up, are now coming back to the church in droves. Money, status and position in life did not meet their inmost needs, so most adults are finding renewal in seeking Jesus on their own terms as they head into their 30’s. As a result, they are taking their children along with them, but without the earlier mentality to force the faith on their kids. This is a good perspective in many ways, but it tends to leave too much responsibility in the hands of kids who do not have the years of experience to draw on. This swinging of the pendulum the other direction means that parents must demonstrate faith in a visible way to their students, or risk losing the key opportunity and time to influence them before they leave the home after high school.
You may be wondering how to be a good example without nagging and forcing the faith on your student like your parents may have done to you. Be visible and faithful in spending time each day in prayer and reading of the Word of God. Don’t just attend church, but progressively increase your participation by serving according to your various gifts and abilities. Model that how you spend your money is the best way to see God’s ownership of your life by giving faithfully 10% of your income. Be a good neighbor and witness by your life and testimony so your student sees that your faith is active both inside and outside of the church walls. These are just some of the many ways you can be a good example of faith to your student.
Pastor Mark
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