brighter futuresyoung life

Teaching About Real Life Issues

During my small group time with the girls one week at Young Life, I took usual requests for prayer. The girls told me they had just had a classmate commit suicide, and they were taking it hard. When I later asked them what I should speak on the following week (it was my turn to speak) they all agreed that they wanted to talk about suicide and why so many of their classmates say they hate themselves. Wow. I spent all of the next week praying and researching. I felt very unqualified to talk about this, but knew this was an opportunity to really bring God into their world.
That night, nothing seemed to be going right. Kids were getting hurt, fighting, and our older kids who had been great leaders before were being uncharacteristically difficulty and disrespectful. I felt defeated before the talk even began. But Chris LeMaster came over to me beforehand, and reminded me that what I was speaking about was so important, and this a good sign that someone didn’t want tonight to happen. With that in mind and one last prayer, I began to share with the kids what reasons teens commit suicide, and what I believed the real underlying reasons were. I talked to them about how God wants to take their feelings of hopelessness and lack of purpose and give them something to live for. I reminded them that no matter how bad things got, God promised to never let them endure it alone and that nothing can separate them from His love. I finished the talk with a video of a skit done to the song “Everything” by Lifehouse, in which a Christ character takes on temptations and trials that try to come between us and Him. The kids were speechless. Once we broke into our small groups, it seemed the walls were down. Even the boys were moved and had much to say about the movie and topic. It was a good night after all, and I praise God for allowing His truth to be shared.

Chelsea Howard

SCYM Volunteer

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *