Faith and a Notepad

Just in case you don't know, I teach the middle schoolers once a month (along with Hannah and Roger). We have a blast down there, enjoying fellowship and learning together from the Word of God. There's never a dull moment!

I know lately both Hannah and I have encouraged the students to begin forming good habits such as taking notes to help them take hold of truths. Each week I tell them they need to bring their Bible to church, and that through the week they should be reading it, getting familiar with it...

All the students downstairs are great - they love the Lord and they love each other, and they're very well behaved (and respectful of authority!). I'm impressed by their concern for the lost at their young age... I could go on, but I think the point is made. The middle school class is a great bunch of believers!

But last week something amazing happened! One of the middle schoolers brought a tiny notepad and took some notes. The notes written down were the same thing twice - "holy means set apart." And that was it. No great elaborate notes of my eloquent speeches and descriptions (that's joke, by the way lol). It was just an effort made towards taking notes.

Here's why this amazed me so much this week. I believe those scribbles on the notepad weren't fruitless, but the birthing of faith. The authority in those students' lives are their parents, but they look to us teachers down their as an authority to a degree. And this student of whom I speak has taken the words of teachers who have been alive longer and began to put them into practice. Maybe it's not grandiose, but it's a start!

To you, it may not seem like much. But for a young person to take those words of someone "above them," and begin to act on them (whether or not they see the point of it), is a birthing of faith. A life of faith isn't one that is above authority, but properly understands the authority that God places in your life.

Now I'm not suggesting that if I say something, then the students are obligated to do it. But this student is trusting that someone wiser, who has already passed through middle school, may have insight and understanding that he or she doesn't. And this is a perfect place to begin walking by faith, and to keep walking in faith.

So I will continue to encourage the students to do this this, and if by faith this student continues to do this, I am certain that the Lord will bless her for it. By the way, this student of whom I speak is none other than Abby!

I love all the students down there, but last week this stood out to me above anything else that happened. They all love the Lord, and I just pray that they will be faithful to keep walking in faith and growing in the Lord. The Lord has great things planned for them - I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do in all their hearts this year.