Monday, November 2, 2009

Looking to Younger Examples

It never ceases to amazing me the things that I can learn from those who are younger than me.  This weekend I watched my determined 5 year old, Gabie run her first 5k- in Crocs no less!  Now, this wasn't planned. We showed up to the race on Saturday morning.  Meg, my wife, and her mom were going to run the Bison Stampede at Harding University.  The run raises money for the Sunshine School which helps special needs students.
Gabie asked if she could run as well, I guess because Meg and I have been running so much lately.  Well,  I thought she would make it around the first loop and she would be done, but she just kept going! Sure enough, here she is getting ready to cross the finish line at 38 minutes.  Not bad for someone who can't even tie her own shoes yet!

Another example is Austin Gutwein.  Austin has recently published his first book, Take Your Best Shot.  In Take Your Best Shot Austin shares how he was challenged to do something bigger than himself.  He was moved through the the efforts of World Vision to help children in Africa who were dying because of AIDS.  Although Austin is not a "basketball stud" he used his passion for the game to start a program called Hoops for Hope which is currently raising money to build a medical clinic in Zambia.  It's truly amazing to read about what Austin is doing.  This week at during our Sunday morning class the teens talked about not just waiting for programming created by the church, but to go out and live their faith today.  That is exactly what Austin, and many other young people are doing.  They are not the future of the church, they are the church today!  Now that I have finished reading Take Your Best Shot, I'll be passing it on to the youth group at Cloverdale, maybe some of the teens there will be inspired to do something BIG.



Let us always remember the advice that Paul gave in 1 Timothy 4:12,
"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your live, your faith, and your purity." -NLT


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