Letter to My Future Children

4-17-06
This was a really cool writing assignment for my English class...it's really sobering to not only think about my future children, but to realize that they are going to go through many hard times...
English Assignment: Write an essay directed toward your future children with warning and advice about adolescence.

My dearest children,
The next few years of your life are going to be some of the hardest. The amount of new things you will encounter will seem endless; new emotions, new people, new responsibilities, new ideas, new evils, new temptations and in all of these, new extremes. You will grow weary and weak. You will be confused and frustrated. You will think you are without help, without hope. But you arent. In the midst of all the darkness and confusion, there is Light and you must hold fast to that Light. You will receive much advice, but above all, you must have a firm and ever-strengthening grip on God. Know Him. Know Him. Above all else, strive to know Him. Find your fulfillment in Him alone. Satan will offer many replacements via the world, via your friends- but none will fill you the way God does. None will satisfy you more than He can. Remember Psalm 4:7; You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their fruit and new wine abound. Remember Psalm 16:11; You make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Do not be deceived. Do not believe that anything else will fill you. Believe these promises. Believe that God is better; indeed, He is best! Believe it. Fight with all that you are to believe that. Thirst after God. Thirst for the joy of being with Him. In the midst of all, drink deep from the fountain of living water (Jer. 2:13).
However, when you have been satisfied by Him, do not hold His joy to yourself, lest you dry up like the Dead Sea. Let your joy in God overflow abundantly in love toward those around you. Love your brothers and sisters. Love them with a real and deep love. Pour yourself out for your hurting friends at school. Many are lost. Many are deceived. Many are addicted to the sands of the world; enslaved to what they hate, because they know nothing better. Show them Water. Let them see how good the Water is. Let them taste & see that the Water is good. Take them water. Take them love. Take them God.
I love you my children, and I am praying for you.