I’ve been in student ministry for 15 years now, and there’s nothing more important to your success with kids and teenagers as a speaker, game facilitator, small group leader, Bible study teacher, counselor, etc., than rapport. It’s important when interacting with adults, but it’s critical if you want your message to resonate with a kid. So needless to say, I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way. Some are personality specific, but many are just time tested tactics that work. Take for example the “if you could” ice breaker question. My favorite version is: If you could travel back in time and spend one hour with any historical figure, or someone that has passed away, who would it be and why? It’s a very Doc Brown type of question and you get to know someone’s heart quickly.
I saw a meme from @just-shower-thoughts:
When people talk about traveling to the past they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small, but barely anyone in the present really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small.
It may not seem like it, and rarely do we see life this way, but you have immense power. In the proverbial pond of life, you can cause ripples that erode, or ripples that baptize. What you do does matter. The most important thing you can do in your entire life, is the next thing you do.
Every single action you take has a direct impact on your future, your family’s future, the future of this world, and yes, even eternity. That’s why it’s so important to be intentional in what we do. Jesus taught us that if you even gave a cup of cold water to a child, that kindness is the same as if you had served it to the God of the universe Himself.
One simple act can have eternal implications… will yours be intentional? This is why we do everything we do, as unto the Lord.
What we say, likewise, has an incredible impact. As a kid, I loved the book The Giver. One of the phrases repeated over and over in the book is “precision of language.” My mom would have put it this way: “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.”
Just like what we do, the words we speak have a huge impact on the world around us, and we ought to be intentional with the words we choose. James, the half-brother of Jesus wrote, “We all make mistakes, but those who control their tongues can also control themselves in every other way.” Proverbs 16:24 says, “Kind words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” There is immense power in the words we speak… the power to give life, or the power to destroy.
And of course Jesus reminds us that, “the mouth speaks what the heart if full of.”
So fill your hearts with scripture and the Holy Spirit of God. Let the words of your mouth breathe life. Let the works of your hands fight for justice and freely give mercy. Every “little” action has more than a little impact."
In the words of Doc Brown, “Great Scott! Your future hasn’t been written. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one!”
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