Youth Challenge Blog

Have you heard the saying - ”It’ll do rightly!”?  It means you’ve put the bare minimum amount of work into doing something and when it’s done, “It’ll do rightly!” – you’re not going to do anything more to improve it.  It’s good enough for you. 

When it comes to the Christian life “It’ll do rightly” just isn’t good enough.  That’s not what we should be striving for.  Instead we should be striving for excellence in everything we do and giving God of our absolute best.

For most of you exams are over or almost over.  You’re looking forward to the summer and the opportunities it holds to serve God among the boys and girls in 5-Day Clubs, Holiday Bible Clubs and Camps.  Maybe for you they’ve already started.  How are you preparing for them – with an “It’ll do rightly” attitude or are you striving for excellence, aiming to do the very best that you can, because it’s for the Lord?  Can I encourage you this summer to strive for excellence in everything you do.

Colossians 1:10 says “That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  Everything we think, say and do should be pleasing to the Lord in every way.  Keep that in mind when  you’re preparing your Bible Lesson or to teach the Memory Verse or leading the quiz.  Keep it in mind in all the activities you’ve to arrange at camp.  Keep it in mind when you’re preparing for and leading your Quiet Time group at camp.  Strive for excellence, because when you’re doing your very best for God it will be pleasing to Him.

Those of you in the SYC Choir will know at times I’m a bit fussy when it comes to making sure we’re pronouncing the words correctly, ending them the same time without 20 sssss(!!) and I make you go over things again and again.  Why am I like that? – simply because I want you as a Choir to sing to your very best each time because it’s for the Lord, not for CEF, and I want it to be pleasing to Him.

Darlene Zschech says “Excellence matters.  We are to serve God with excellence because we know an excellent God.  To give Him anything but our best would be demeaning.  Offer Him your finest, at whatever stage your finest is.  Not what you want your finest to be or what you wish it was, but offer your finest for today.  The testimony and impact of serving with excellence is like watching the ripple effect over the ocean – excellence sends out waves, touching lives in ways that you may never see.”  (*)

You want to serve God this summer? – strive for excellence.  You want God to use you to touch lives of boys and girls – strive for excellence.  It’s not easy.  Excellence doesn’t just happen.  Striving for excellence requires discipline and determination.  Being disciplined in your time with God and in your preparation.  Being determined that you’re going to give your absolute best to God, no matter what happens or what other people might be doing.  Being determined that this is going to be the best Bible Lesson/Memory Verse/Quiz/etc it can be, and working towards that.  There are no half measures when it comes to living for, and serving, God.  He deserves our absolute best.  If I asked you did you strive for excellence in this past year in school, university or work, what would your answer be?  Let’s make this summer one of excellence.

Strive for excellence this summer.  Give God your absolute best.  Go for it!!

Angie

(*) “Extravagant Worship” by Darlene Zschech

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 4:41 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.