For my grandsons, at age 12, from your Nana
Live a clean life. Be honest and full of integrity. Do what you know is right even when others around you are not – especially when no one is looking.
Be joyful and happy. Take pleasure in just being alive. Don’t get high on anything but life and the one who created it. Don’t weigh yourself down with the worries and conflicts of the adults in your life. Let their troubles be their troubles. You’ll have enough to do to keep yourself out of trouble.
Try new things. Learn who you are and what you are meant to do and be. Follow your heart, but use your head. You know what is good for you and what is not. If you don’t know, you can figure it out from what you have seen, heard, read, and experienced. Know that you know that for all the choices you make, good or not so good, there are life-long consequences far beyond being disciplined – and even if those you love don’t have a clue what you are doing.
Show restraint. Don’t be like a wild donkey – don’t get caught up in the rumpus just because everyone else is, or because it seems like fun at the moment.
Be self-controlled. Do not allow yourself to be peer pressured.
Think before you act. Don’t get so caught up in the moment that you act only on impulse. No auto-pilot for you!
Weigh your choices. How you dress, how you act, who you hang with, who you want to be like, and who you don’t. You have a powerful influence over others, young and old.
Set the example. While life is fun, it is also serious, and there is no rehearsal. Be conscious in all you do: in your speech, in life, in love, in action, in inaction, in faith, and in purity.
Be strong. Be active, build your body by eating well and plan for lots of exercise. Involve yourself in sports or band, something that will you outside, moving and growing physically. But it is even more important to be morally strong. Don’t be afraid to ask the adults who love you to be “the bad guy,” to allow you to say “I’m sorry my mom won’t let me.” Just be sure you are working toward being able to say “No” under your own steam.
Remember all you know. You know how to recognize God and how to recognize Satan in things you and others do and say. When the pressure builds up, depend on God. He does answer prayer, as you well know.
Depend on God. His Word is in you. His grace goes before you. He’s been there and done that. Look around at all the tee shirts!
Follow Jesus. He knows where you are going. If you slip up (and we all do) don’t continue down the slippery slope. Don’t take the easy way. Pick yourself up. Turn around and look for Jesus. Find someone to help give you the strength and will to regain the high ground. When you get there, take off your shoes and create something that will help you remember not to slip up in the same place again.
Forgive yourself. You know that Jesus stands between your sin and God. God has not only forgiven you, but has forgotten your sin. The least you can do is to not keep reminding Him. Remember to forgive others, forgive your self, and don’t keep beating yourself up, jut move on. Read the stories of other young men to had to keep trying over and over again: Joseph, Samuel, David, Joash, Josiah, David, Peter, Paul, Timothy….
Know that you are loved – unconditionally. While those of us who love you may sometimes be disappointed in what you do, where you go, who you are with, choice or decisions you make, just remember that we love you no less. And God, who watches over you and protects you says nothing can separate you from His love either.
Be brave. Go places no one has gone before. Use all that you are to become all that you were meant to be.
Be industrious and responsible. Find things to do that are creative, constructive and helpful to others. Do anything you do (studying, learning, helping, playing, worshiping, creating) vigorously to increase your strength for the tasks that lie ahead of you.
Do all as unto the Lord. No matter if you taking out the trash, cleaning your room, doing a project, spending time with your family or your friends, live fully in the presence of God.
Be God’s salt and light. Don’t work at having lots of friends or being popular. Instead, BE a friend to all. Help those who need help. Search out random acts of kindness that you can do in secret so that only you and God know what you have done. If people suspect, shrug your shoulders or give the credit to Jesus.
Acknowledge Jesus as your Savior. Be his hands and feet among others, serving him with joy, and making Him the Lord of your life, seated on the throne of your heart.
Give as much of yourself as you can to love as much of God as you can understand. This will help to you grow, not only taller, but more full of wisdom and grace, and in favor with God and man.
Keep your Bible busy. If is worthless unless you use it as more than a dust collector. Don’t worry that what you read has been read before, or that it doesn’t seem to make much sense. God just tell us to to hide His Word in our hearts. You can trust the Holy Spirit to use what you have read in your life, your actions, your thoughts and your words.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, I pray that out of His glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in your living and in Christ Jesus through those who came before you, those who surround you and those generations who follow you, so that those who come behind you will find you faithful. I pray that you will trust the Lord with all your heart that you will lean on Him for understanding, and in everything you think, say and do you will acknowledge whose you are.
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