Guest WriterPrimary School Leaving Examinations. Never been through a major exam before this. Everyone says to study hard. Get into the school you want. It's important, sure.
So now the PSLE results are out. Some are happy, others sad. Some are just okay. Things will change from this point. You'll go on to teenage life. Go through the very present temptations of this age. You'll face temptations to join your friends who smoke, to play truant, to cheat during examinations. Even worse, pre-marital sex and other such issues. Most probably, you've already met some of these temptations.
If you haven't already started, you'll probably start to have crushes, like people, have eye candies around. Then you'll be met with the issue of whether or not to express your feelings for that person. And where to go, who to turn to? Your parents? (You must be going "yerrr right".)
Frankly, I'd never have considered that at your age. Your friends? Sure, but would they give you good, mature advice?
So much ahead. All I can say is this. Only God can help you through all the issues you are about to face or are facing. As the Psalmist has written in the 27th Psalm "Do not hide your face from me, do not turn away your servant in anger,
for you have been me helper, O God my saviour, do not reject me or forsake me.
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me". (Even your dad and mom who love you so much cannot be as trusted as our God).
You've heard it a thousand times before. Most of you, as I did, grew up in church. But I need to remind you that God is the only constant person you will ever have in your life. Your parents, your friends, your best friend even, your boyfriend or girlfriend in future, your teachers, your Sunday School teachers. These people you might trust. But only God will prove to be faithful and constant and loving every single time, at every single turn.
3 basic important habits.
1. Don't give up going to church. All through my life, God has used my close Christian friends to ground me to Him. A large part of who I am, I owe it to their presence as God's instruments in my life. If you give up on church, for whatever reason, be it busyness, boredom, broken relationships, you will effectively be giving up meeting with many people inside. "
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching"-Hebrew 10:252. Do not compromise your quiet time with God. Right now it may be just 1 minute of reading the bible and 1 minute of prayer. That's excellent! Over the years, it is my prayer that you build it up into more time with God. Walk with God and some day, mark my words, if you're really serious with God and in seeking Him, you'll find that you can feel God's presence so strongly just behind a shut door in your room during quiet time. So strongly that you need to kneel down and worship His presence the way you do at a childrens' camp.
Do not let the devil fake you into believing that you are strong enough to stop or neglect your QT. You need to build yourselves up in this area.
3. Honour your father and mother. These are God-given authorities in your life. It is hard. I should know. I went through my share of issues with them. "
They don't see eye to eye on many things, do they? They don't understand us young people at all. They don't give us enough freedom even when we're fully capable of taking care of ourselves." That's how you feel right? But God says that "you will live long and it may go well with you" in Deuteronomy chapter 5. And that is simply it. Oh and one more thing. The best way to get your parents to trust you is to earn their trust by obeying and honouring and being respectful to them.
I barely managed to skim the surface on a couple of issues I brought up. Temptations in their various forms, crushes... etc. Perhaps some other time if permitted. But my main point right now is this. Just one thing to remember if you forget everything else:
"...for you have been me helper, O God my saviour, do not reject me or forsake me. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me"Psalm 27:9God will NEVER abandon you!
