May is a time of change. Maybe you have experienced that yourself or alongside someone you are close with. College Graduations. High School Graduations. Kindergarten Graduations. We stop and celebrate change.

As a Youth & Family Minister, the month of May is hard and exciting. Every year, there are Seniors who have reached the end of the road and it is time to find a way to say goodbye to them and watch them go on to another chapter. (I am trying to convince some of them to never grow up.) In the same season, we welcome those who start their journey in this new season. Full circle. The question is what do we do before the circle closes? Are we running from one week to another just trying to survive or are we making sure our kids are prepared and able to withstand all that world throws at them? There is only one way they survive that kind of assault. They must be rooted and grounded in God.

There is nothing more valuable we can do with our time, energy, and resources than help make our young people able and have the desire to work in the kingdom of God. Nothing. What else compares? Families, why do we spend more time making our kids more able to preform in something this world values than we do making them able to be a tool in something God values? How much of your time is spent investing and training your kids in spiritual kingdom work?

If you are raising kids right now, you are not just raising someone able to go to work one day. You are raising a worshipper. You are raising someone purchased by the blood of Christ. You are raising someone who has the choice to one day be a disciple. A follower of Christ. You are raising someone that is eternal. This is a different focus of why we invest.  This is a different work, one that we should be excited about. 

God wants us to be busy spiritually investing in our kids. In our work we find joy and strength. This is God’s ideal outcome of our actions. God doesn’t give us work to do to keep us busy. He is trying to keep us full. He doesn’t want to control us, He wants to transform us. He knows what service does. He knows what joy overcomes. He knows his strength is unending. He knows the world will notice. This is why we work. 

I want to leave you with an idea I have seen a few places. Get two clear jars, fill one with beans, one for each week that your teen has left before they graduate. Each week, transfer one of them to another jar. It will be easy to see how much time you have left. It is a good reminder that change often comes quicker than we want. God wants you to make the most of it. Satan wants to you not think about at all.