12/08/2025
Youth Group's lesson today: use the talents & gifts that God has blessed you with to serve Him, to serve others, to create good things that bless people. Even if your gift or talent seems unimportant or common or something people might not think is amazing-He will do amazing things through you, through the work of your hands...if you let Him!
I shared with our Youth that I had Jojo over one winter day while her mom had work & I asked her what she wanted to do together. She already knew! Make cookies! So we did! If our young people can see that what they do with their time can positively impact others, or better yet, further the Kingdom of God, then we are making an impact!
An example I shared from my own life with our Youth Group today was baking & decorating gingerbread. I love baking, I love sharing my bakes, & I have had some mild success at baking gingerbread in regards to competitions, but my favorite application for gingerbread is what my kids & I do every mid-December. We bake loads of gingerbread, decorate them, pack them up, & then load them into our stroller. We walk our neighborhood in the crisp winter air & hand-deliver our gingerbread to neighbors. We try to add a new house to our route every year, & we wish the families a blessed day & there have been opportunities to visit, to pray, to invite people to church, to encourage-all through this little thing we do together. We are up to 14 houses this year!
I shared this with the Youth today. I loved watching them work diligently & cooperatively, decorating & creating & delighting in the medium of gingerbread.
My opening presentation photo showed a stack of stainless steel mixing bowls that were passed down to me by a grandmother-figure in my early life, Freida. Freida wrote me a note to find in my mixing bowls that said I could use these to one day win a Pilsbury Bake-Off, and they are my mixing bowls that I have used to win competitions, to bake for my family & neighbors, & now to use in ministry. Humble tools, willing hands, ready to stir something up. As the Word says in Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
Yes! Let's stir one another up & encourage!
Thank you & God bless you!