You know what it means to struggle against the subtle, yet very real lure and undertow of temptation. But, you have also experienced the power of God’s sustaining grace and the support that comes from God’s people. You’ve also tasted the bitterness of failure and shame and have most likely spent significant time praising God that he does not leave you there!As youth workers, these personal experiences with temptation will come into play in helping teenagers successfully resist temptation.
Today, we’ll use the same phrases as yesterday in our thoughts about helping students win against temptation.
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Help your teenagers battle temptation with this resource by Kurt Johnston.
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FIRST THINGS FIRST
A healthy faith rests in God’s grace. You or I will never be perfect this side of heaven, so we need to be relying on God’s forgiveness and grace if we are going to disciple teenagers. His gift of freedom also leads to more compassion toward students’ struggles. We need to be a safe place for our students if we are going to support them in their own temptation battles.
ASK QUESTIONS
For many of us, it’s tough to go deep and get personal with students. Successful discipleship goes beneath the surface and breaks the normal rhythm of comfortable conversations. Questions about temptation can help your students recognize the destructive patterns of their situations and decisions. With greater awareness, they can trust God by avoiding the situation, redirecting their thoughts, or expressing self-control. Ask your students direct questions about their temptations to help them gain insight into their behaviors.
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Help your teenagers battle temptation with this resource by Kurt Johnston.
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BE HONEST
A leader who pretends to be perfect will create plastic disciples who appear shiny but are really shallow. By being open about our own weakness and battles with temptation we can be a huge encouragement to others. It’s okay to talk about your struggles with your students–but only to a point. If your personal sharing may become too much of a distraction, then hold back or share it with a trusted friend your own age and seek the wisdom of others to see if it’s appropriate to share with teenagers. A simple principle to remember about sharing is: it’s not appropriate to share for your benefit (“I just need to get this off my chest”)…share when you know that you’re transparency will help them.