Hi Parents,

This is an update for you to keep you informed about what we are teaching at Jr. High on Tuesday nights.

A few things we talked about

-  We took a trip to the base of Mt. Everest.  It is the tallest mountain in the world.
-   As we stood at the base of the mountain I told a few facts about the mountain:
- 30,000 ft high
- thousands attempt the climb each year
- Under a hundred actually make it yearly
- the vast majority only make it 1/3^rd up the mountain before giving up

- I told a story of a group of experience climbers who attempted this climb.  They got about 1/3^rd up the mountain before one of them was hurt.  Instead of giving up they decided to not give up on their life’s dream and continued to climb towards their goal, the top of the world.
-   We likened this to the spiritual life:
The spiritual life is a lot like climbing Mt. Everest; it’s a journey that is sometimes long, sometimes hard and takes lots of effort and perseverance.   A relationship with God isn’t something that you do just once and forget about it; it’s a long journey towards becoming the person God wants you to be.  The Bible talks about running the race that is set out for us with perseverance and keeping our eyes on Christ.  Although things will trip us up and we will make mistakes along the way we must keep our eyes on the prize and that is life with Jesus.

Hebrews 12

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

QUOTE – “God’s goal is not to make sure you’re happy. Life is not about your being comfortable, happy, successful and pain free. It is about becoming the person God has called you to be. Life is not about you. It’s about God. He doesn’t exist only to make us happy. We exist to bring Him glory.”  Chuck Swindoll

Questions for you:

As parents we want to work hard towards raising kids who have this deep desire to follow God even in the midst of hardships.  But the question is how do we do this?  How do we teach our kids that following God isn’t going to be easy, isn’t going to always be fun but it will be worth it?

Question 1: What are some ways we can model for our kid’s perseverance in following God even when it’s hard?

Question 2: Do we hide from our kids some of the hard times we might be facing or do we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and open?

Questions for your kids:

Question 1: What is the author of Hebrews here trying to tell us about what it means to follow God?  Why is it hard to preserver in our faith sometimes?

Question 2: Why do you think so many people quit growing in their relationship with Jesus?   What are some things that are hard about being a Christian and taking a stand for what we believe?

Question 3– In your school is it hard to be a person who follows Jesus?  Do you find it hard to take a stand for whats right?