Practice what you preach...

For those of you who haven't heard, or who are just starting to read this blog, I am currently interning at Norton Christian Church in Norton, Kansas. This has been a great experience for me so far and I am looking forward to gaining more ministry experience as I continue. Some of my responsibilities here are:

1. Teaching Sunday school for Jr high and high school students.
2. Teaching counsel time for the AWANA program here, both the TNT age group and SPARKS.
3. Heading up a Jr High outreach event on Friday nights and the youth center here.
4. Being heavily involved in TREK (Jr high youth ministry) and IGNITE (high school youth ministry), both in planning and teaching.

These are just SOME of the things that I am involved with here in Norton. I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to get involved in the different ministries that this church and community have to offer. I can honestly say that I have been stretched quite a bit and have grown quite a bit as well throughout this whole process. I am so thankful that I can continue to learn more about the calling and the profession of student ministry that I am hoping to be involved in full time here very soon.

Here recently, we have challenged our students to really strive to grow deeper in their personal relationship with God. We are doing a series in our high school youth ministry called SPAM (study, pray, and memorize) with the hopes that our students will be challenged to use the resources that God has given them to reach out to Him and really grow closer to Him everyday. We are also doing a series in our Sunday school class called TRUTH OR DARE, which deals with finding your identity in The Truth instead of the world.

This last week I have been really convicted that I am not "practicing what I preach." I keep telling our students that they need to spend less time digging into the material things that the world has to offer (such as Facebook, video games, texting, etc.) and spend more time digging deeper into who God is (through daily Bible reading, study, and prayer). I challenged my students to make a sacrifice in their lives to give up something that is hindering them from spending time with God.

Then I thought to myself, (inner monologue) "How can I expect my students to sacrifice something to make more time for God if I haven't been doing it myself?" From their perspective, if the very leader that challenged them to make more room for God isn't doing it himself then why should they? So I have decided to make a conscious effort to spend less time in pointless things that will hinder my growth in Christ and spend more time in His word, prayer, and memorization. There is an old Reliant K song that is called "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" which I think is so true in life. I need to strive to live out the words that I am speaking to my students on a regular basis...stop thinking that I am on a higher pedestal when it comes to my relationship with God...and start doing one thing...practice what I preach.