Words of wisdom from Rick Warren today: ​

This was a guest post on Michael Whitworth's Start2Finish blog today. For the original post, click here. ​

In my early days in college I was dating a girl whose father was a preacher, as if I wasn't afraid of going home to visit her parents enough already. I dated this girl for over a year and I went to her home several times. Every time we would go to worship, she had a young man who was a friend of hers who liked to sit beside her every time she was there. He was four or five and loved to color with crayons. 

Every time my girlfriend's father would preach, he had a handout. These would be passed out to the congregation at the start of the sermon and the people could follow along with notes and fill in the blanks. 

The young man who was sitting beside us would immediately get the paper and turn it over and start scribbling on the blank side opposite the nicely formatted notes on the other side. He would "draw" pictures of ships, planes, or cars. He would even sometimes give them to me or my girlfriend to keep after services. 

Proverbs 16 begins by talking about plans. Verse 3 specifically says that if we commit our work to the Lord that our plans will be established. 

How do we make plans in our lives? How do we go about all the planning and figuring and saving for all the different things we want to do? 

And, in those plans, is God a factor? 

We live in a horribly busy world. I kind of get irritated when kids in my youth group complain about boredom. I can't remember the last time I was truly bored with nothing to do. And when I think about where I've been, I've been busy making plans for years. I've been going to college, getting married, having children, running a ministry, getting caught up in events and hobbies - you get the point. Most of us are incredibly busy people. 

The Bible in many ways says that, in a nutshell: if your plans don't involve God, then they really don't even matter in the long run. 

If you're making plans without God, it's like drawing on the opposite side of the paper. After we're done, our crayon scratches and lines look like foolishness. God's plans were neatly put on the front side of the paper, we just didn't bother to look at it. We wanted to do it ourselves. We wanted to make our own plans without consulting God. 

At this time of the year, we honor those who graduate from high school. Do we ask our 18 year olds how God factors into their plans? What college they will attend? How they intend to grow as a Christian away from the nest?

What about choosing a spouse? Do we ask if this person is going to help me get to heaven? Of do we just think they are " the one" we're supposed to be with?

Maybe you or members of your family have health concerns. Have you prayed to God about it? Have you asked Him for His will to be done? 

You see, we can get carried away in life making plans for our future and forget to factor God in, to make Him the center of our plans for life. We forget that God is one who delivers us, watches out for us, and keeps us safe. 

One of the big overall themes of Proverbs is wisdom. Having wisdom, making good decisions. A wise man or woman seeks God's plans for their life first. If we do that, then we can know that everything in our lives will fall into place. 

From YouthMinistry360:​

Early Prep Work

1. Decide where you want to go for camp, sign up, and send in any deposits.
2. Begin signing-up your students and adult leaders for the camp. There are some great software programs for youth ministry that make this process easier. Of course, there's always Excell, and old-fashioned notebooks work, too!
3. Let your students know how much camp will cost, get them to put down a deposit, and set a date for final payment. Be very specific about your policies for refunding deposits and/or fees.
4. Plan your transportation to and from camp.
5. Check on the daily schedule at your camp, what you will be responsible for teaching and leading, and what the camp leaders will do. Make plans for any free time. (I try to find the balance between enough time to have fun and too-much free time. Too much unstructured free time is rarely a good thing!)

Getting Closer

1. Get any camp promotional material and promote, promote, promote. If you or your adult leaders will be teaching any small group time, get the material to your leaders at least one month ahead of time.
2. The dreaded rooming list! This is the one I always struggle with the most. Get your rooming list to your camp leaders on time.
3. Make sure you have a medical release form on every student and adult attending camp. There are plenty of forms available on the Internet.
4. Three of four weeks before camp send out an information letter outlining what time you will leave, what time you will return, where you are going, and include a list of everything the student needs to bring to camp. Also be clear of what is not allowed at camp.

Last Minute Prep

1. Think through what you want to do about cell phones. I've found them to be a major distraction, but I also know parents do not want to send their child away without one. [I tell ours if I see their cell phone I get it until we go home, but that's just me. :) ]
2. Send in your final payment to your camp.
3. Some extra things I always take to camp: an iron, petty cash, 2 or 3 rolls of quarters, laundry detergent if facilities are available, a laundry bag, shower shoes, squirt soap, extra toothbrushes, extra pens, lanyards, kitchen size garbage bags for students dirty clothes, a medical kit with basic items for accidents, female hygiene items, Catch Phrase, notebook paper, and note cards.

Everybody has discouraging days. Mine is today. ​

You may need these passages today as well. ​

Romans 12:12 - Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Colossians 4:2 - Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Romans 8:31-39 - What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 

Jeremiah 29:11-13 - For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Ephesians 5.8 - ...For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. 

Galatians 6.9 - Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not give up. 

Acts 20.24 - But I do not acount my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I recieved from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 

John 3.16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

#truth

It's been a rough few months for the church I work with. We've had over a dozen people pass away who have been members here or connected here in some way.

I've been to a lot of visitations in the last three months, and it's amazing what you hear both at the funerals and the visitations about the deceased. 

"He was a good man."

"She was one amazing woman."

"He sure did love his sports." 

I've heard predominately what the person loved. His or her family, their cars, their sports, both local and abroad. And that got me thinking. 

Ask this question: If someone were to say something about you at your funeral if you died today, what would it be? Would it be that you were a hardcore Tennessee Vols fan? Or that you lived and breathed baseball? Or that you really liked Star Trek?

What will people remember you by? Your hobbies? Or who you really were?

What will people say that mattered to you? 

As much as some of us hate to admit it, what we spend our time doing is what matters to us the most. You spend most of your time working? It isn't because you have to work, it's because that's what matters to you the most. Spend most of your time in hobbies or collecting? That's what matters to you the most. 

Time management is a scary thing. You only have 10,800 minutes a week to fit things in. That's everything - sleep, work, play, family, hobbies, eating - everything. The truth: What you spend your time on matters the most to you. 

Ecclesiastes 3 is the famous "There is a time for everything" passage, and it rings so true today, even though it was written over 2500 years ago. There is a time for everything.

There is a time when my little boy won't be a little boy anymore, so maybe I need to prioritize my time off from work and not be distracted when I'm with my family. Maybe I need to spend less time playing retro video games and more time playing with my young son. Maybe I need to focus on my wife instead of the thousand other things that I have to do - all of which will still be there for me to do tomorrow (Matthew 6.34). 

I spend way too much time obsessing about my time. Once it's gone though, we'll never get it back. So let's use our time wisely, and live in the moment. Because when we're gone and people are talking over our casket, we want them to say that we were Godly and that we loved our families more than anything.