A Life Lesson

Our church does not have a paid clergy. That means for Sunday worship members are expected to give talks on assigned gospel topics. The notice comes out a week to two weeks prior to the actual assignment. The assignments are not just limited to adult members. Youth, ages 12 and up, are also called on to speak, although their time limit for speaking is usually about 5 minutes compared to the 10-15 for adults. Last Sunday, the 12-year old in our family was asked to speak. As we were driving home from church last week, I suggested to him that he might want to work on his talk right after lunch while his spirit was still in touch with "churchy things". He said he didn't want to and that he would work on it later in the week. I tried one more time to gently persuade him to write his talk that very day and not to put it off. I used the analogy of the walnuts and sand--walnuts being the things the Lord wants us to do and the sand being everything else that we have to do. If we put the sand in a jar first, no walnuts will fit in; but if we fill our jar with the walnuts first, then when we go to add the sand, everything fits. The 12-year old wasn't buying it. He said he had homework, needed time to play, eat, goof around with dad, etc. He would get to his talk later in the week. I'm a believer in natural consequences and not nagging children. Ok, I'm trying to get better about not nagging children AND I had just taught a lesson on "teach them correct principles and let the govern themselves" so I figured what a perfect time to put words into action/application. Not one more word was said about the talk. The boy knew what needed to be done and he knew that there were many tools available to him for writing his talk. Roll forward to today. He thought he was off the hook because the program listed another youth speaker. That young man was not able to jump in. So the counselor conducting the meeting was looking out into the audience, saying "So if you're the youth speaker who was assigned to speak today, please come forward". The hubby and I are in the congregation totally whispering to the boy that he needs to get up there and say something. He musters up his courage and heads up to the front. He then begins to speak on his assigned topic...

OBEDIENCE

He started his talk by stating that this one really pertained to him this week. He shared the conversation we had in the car on the way home from church last week. He included the walnut/sand analogy. He even was able to share what he had learned from this experience. His dad and I thought he did a great job and can't wait to see what kind of talk he will give next time after this life lesson.