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By Justin, December 9, 2006

There are some things that will never go away. That is why we have to be careful about what we say and do, especially when it may affect others around us... Whether we are joking or not we have to watch what we say. We have been talking about this in LifeGroups for several weeks. In case you didn’t know LifeGroups is a program that the youth group of Preston Ridge Baptist Church is holding for youth on Wednesday nights.

When I was in middle school I was having a hard time with keeping my grades up, but no matter how low they got my parents still encouraged me, but what if they hadn’t, what if they had not encouraged me, and said “You’re right Justin, you can’t do it?” I would have been torn to shreds. But they didn’t, they kept encouraging me even though I probably didn’t believe them at the time, and they even paid for me to go to Sylvan, and with their encouragement and Sylvan’s encouragement and willingness to show me that I could do whatever I wanted to do, I finally realized that I could. I was on the line and one push towards discouragement would have lost the battle and I would never have known what I could do. I only tell you this to encourage you to watch what you say and do. One joke, and even one word can make someone feel like they’re worth nothing.

If one person tells you, that you are smart, and one person tells you that you aren’t, who are you going to believe? We are usually more quick to believe the bad things that we are told. We need to hear at least 5 positive things to counter only 1 negative. As a youth group, we are learning to be the ones to build each other up. Even if we take back something we say, or remove a post, it is hard to forget what was said when it was negative. Relationships get hurt and it takes a lot of positive reinforcement to overcome the negative.

As Christians we want to be especially careful about how we act and relate toward the people around us. We need to build each other up in a way that is pleasing to Christ and in a way that sets a good example to those around us.

These LifeGroup lessons have been teaching us how sarcasm and negative comments can hurt friendships, especially when it goes so far that it becomes “normal” and “comfortable.” I think that while hearing the lesson, some of us didn’t realize how much it applied to us and how much we were like the example of what not to do and how not to treat each other. Let’s all work on encouraging those around us and setting the tone for our youth group to be one that is building everyone up instead of tearing them down. We get enough negative from the world around us. Let’s not do it to ourselves.

Labels: Challenges, Relationships

{ Posted 2:03 PM | E-Mail Post | Edit Post }

 Ryan:

Justin, here is a script that you can use.
Click this!

 Justin:

Thanks, Ryan.

 Ryan:

Glad to be of help to my best friend.

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