Love: A Response

I must confess, when I was in my first years of ministry as a single woman, I made it a point to publicly despise the Valentine’s holiday. I wrote it off by saying I was going to wear black and stay at home all day. The whole ushy gushy lovie dovie stuff was not for me… until someone reminded me that Love did not necessarily have to be about a man in my life… it first needed to be about the God of my life and the people that God put in my life to love.

I loved the "Love God, Love Students" article this week because it was exactly what I needed to hear when I was a young single youth director. It is a great reminder that we all have people to love. You don’t have to go out and spend a fortune to show God you love Him – He just wants to spend time with you! (I think his love language is Quality Time!) That must be our first priority – married or not!

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How are you caring for your youth group?
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Loving our students – that is the other requirement for a good youth leader – first we love God, then our family, then our students. That is a hard order to live by at times, especially when we see such a need around us. Who is the student in your ministry that needs to feel love the most this week? Take some time to spend with them to show them they are loved, especially during a week that they may feel left out, abandoned, or far from loved.

Love your spouse. I vowed when I was single that if I ever did get married I would make it a point to build up my husband in front of others. It seemed that I was surrounded by women that were constantly speaking negatively about their husbands. I just didn’t want that for my marriage. Don’t get me wrong, I have at times complained about my husband to other women (which I regret) but as a whole I try my best to speak words of affirmation about my husband and his gifts. Like my mom said, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

I have a great opportunity to share Christ with students and others; just by the way I treat my husband. Students are watching! Some of them have never seen a healthy relationship, so your relationship is in the spotlight. If you aren’t married but dating someone – students are watching you! They long to see a healthy relationships modeled for them. That was very important to my husband and I when we were dating since we were both Youth Directors at different churches.

We were challenged this week to Love Unexpectedly – be creative! Money is an issue for us right now so creatively loving my husband this year doesn’t mean dinner at his favorite place, but instead I am going to do the dishes every day for a month (his love language is acts of service, and his job at home is doing the dishes). I think he will be thrilled.

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How are you caring for your youth group?
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We were also challenged to love when no when is watching. Take time for your spouse this week and every week. If your priorities aren’t God, family, ministry – it will be hard to show students how they need to prioritize and show love to others in their lives.