Why, hello people I love.
It’s back to school time. Congrats, parents. My sincere apologies, teachers and students. 🙂
I always hated going back to school, mainly because it meant summer was over. I could no longer sleep past lunch. I could no longer watch all my court shows and “You are not the baby daddy” shows that I wasn’t allowed to watch. Nope. It was back to the stressful days of early mornings, boys, cafeteria food, and making sure I didn’t have the same American Eagle shirt as any of the other girls (which was always a massive fail). Oh, and occasionally I did school work.
Going back to school was also a reminder that I wasn’t in my safe little bubble anymore. Each summer, I went to at least two church or Christian camps. I always left feeling on fire and ready to conquer anything. And then I’d go back to school and something would change. There wasn’t a worship band pumping me up each morning. There was no designated time for quiet time or reading my Bible. All my youth group friends and camp friends were at their houses now. The speaker who challenged me to know and love God better was back at wherever he lived. All the sudden, I was thrown back in to the world, alone. And honestly, it was a little scary. I didn’t want to go back to my old self. I wanted to keep this fire I got at camp. But in order to keep that fire, it was up to me now and I felt a little lost on how to make that happen.
This past summer, I spoke or led worship at several different awesome youth camps and conferences. Maybe you were at one of them.
If you did go a youth camp or conference this past summer, here are some things you can do that I wish someone would have told me about keeping that fire after camp.
- Reflect and prioritize. First things first. Before you do anything else, you have got to have reflect on who you were before, how God changed that and what you learned at camp; why it’s important for you to keep Him first in your life and develop a plan of how you’re gonna make that happen. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a whole lot easier to fall back into past patterns. Remember that excitement you had or have, and refuse to put anything else above your relationship with Jesus. You’re a student. You’re busy. You’ve got stuff to do. Commit to putting your relationship with God before all the stuff. Even if it’s sports, even if it’s friends, even if it’s school. I’m not telling you to slack of on those things, because God wants your best at all of them. But I am saying, don’t let them become more important than connecting with Him.
- Make a designated time in your day for Quiet Time. Find a time that you can connect with God every day. Make it a routine so it doesn’t become an after thought. Spend time with Him through prayer and His Word. No texting, Facebooking, Twittering. Just you and Him. Whether it’s before you go to bed, when you wake up, at lunch- set a consistent time for you to do that everyday. Spending time with Him is just like you spending time with your friends, or your boyfriend or girlfriend. If you don’t spend time with them, things get distant. Don’t allow that. If you have trouble with figuring out what to read- check these study Bibles out. You can also download a free App called YouVersion. That app has a lot of studies you can pick from and easy to read translations, and even has reminders for you to read.
- Get plugged in. Get involved in your youth group and stay consistent with it. Same thing with FCA or Young Life at your school. This helps you refuel and stay accountable. Now, I’ll be honest with you. This was hard for me. There were so many other things I wanted to do that landed the same time as church. I would find myself slowly but surely detaching myself from church till it became something that I wasn’t really involved in. I found myself just not wanting to go. I’d go when it was convenient. Here’s the thing though- if I’ve committed to putting God first on list of priorities, quiet time and church are important. Why? Because they help us further know and love Him more. If you don’t have a church, find one that you can grow at. Get with the youth pastor, tell them your story, and get plugged in. My church has several strategic partner churches and one could be in your area. Click here to find a church for you.
- Get a mentor. Find someone of the same sex who is further a long in their walk with Jesus than you are to be a mentor to you. This person might be a little older than you, but they still get you and you like hanging with them. Obviously, it needs to be someone you can trust. Work out a plan to hang out with them every week or every other week. Go to the movies, go out to eat, whatever. But at some point, do a check in with them about how things are going in your life and walk. And be honest. If you did something stupid, be honest. This person is not there to judge you, but to encourage you in your walk. Chances are, they’ve done something stupid too, and can help you navigate through your issue. If you have someone in mind to mentor you, talk with your youth pastor. If they don’t have anyone in mind, email me at haleymorgansmithmusic@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to connect you with someone.
- Find your core group. All of us typically have a group of people we hang out with most. They are our people, our peeps, our boys, our homies (yep, just said that). The thing we need to evaluate is whether our core group helps us or hurts us in our relationship with Christ. If they hurt us, if they bring a ton of drama to the table, if they keep throwing temptations to us, if they don’t respect the fact that Jesus comes first, it’s time to find a different core. Your core group needs to be people who are walking the same direction you are, who are going to help you and keep you accountable. If your gonna be spending a lot of time with your friends, this group is who most of that time needs to be with. Could be people from your youth group, FCA, etc. Now, understand this. This doesn’t mean don’t love or be friends with other people. Other people need your example. Just make sure you safe guard yourself from being influenced by anything that would trip you up. Your core group helps you do that.
- Realize this isn’t supposed to be easy. Being a follower of Christ isn’t always easy. We are people. We have wants. We have desires. We’re sinners. We’re broken. That’s what grace was invented for. You are going to be tempted. You are going to have things thrown in your face that will not be easy to say “No” to. You’re also going to have things not go your way even when you do the right thing. The Christian walk is not all pretty flowers and butterflies with Hillsong playing in the background. Sometimes, it’s the hardest thing you can imagine. But here is the cool part. You have the comfort of knowing God will never leave you or give up on you. You will always have the security of Him and His love for you regardless of what life is throwing at you. So, don’t give up. Don’t quit. Fight the good fight. Love God as much as you can and love people as much as you can. Be faithful to Him, because He is always faithful to you. People won’t always love you the way they’re supposed to. Life won’t always be a friend. But God always will.
Feel free to throw more ideas on how to stay on the right path in the comments below. I’m praying for your journey.
Oh, real quick. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Man, I’d love to go on a cruise with Haley Morgan Smith,” or “Man, I’d love to go to Puerto Rico and the Turks and other fun places,”….you can! I’ll be speaking and playing on the All Access Cruise in February 2015.
If you book before October, you’ll get to eat dinner and take an excursion with me- like zip-lining or four wheelin’ through the jungle. To some of ya’ll, that’s a terrible selling point. but I promise it will be worth your time. Either way, check it out.
-HMS
Haley Morgan Smith is a Christian speaker, worship artist, and writer from Atlanta, GA. You can connect with her on these other sites.
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