How I came to write a devotional book for youths
by Terry Overton
One day I was chatting with my granddaughter about a devotional book I was writing. She thought it was pretty cool, so I told her to send me topics and I would write devotionals for her. In a couple of days, my other grandkids joined in sending me all kinds of topics. Within a week, their friends began to send me texts of devotional topics. The texts became real time requests, with the teens asking for advice about dating, challenging people, participating in sports, peer pressure, bullying, and a host of other topics. After a couple of months, I collected the devotionals and found a publisher.
The result was released in April: Devotionals for Youths: Growing up in Christ.
This experience taught me something that parents may not know: kids think about
God a lot! They want to know, from a Christian perspective, how to deal with
day-to-day problems. I was surprised at the seriousness of some topics such as
talking to friends about Christ, keeping steadfast in your faith, using kind
words, and explaining the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For
those who want to open a dialogue with their middle schooler or high schooler,
this devotional can provide a conversation starter for hard topics. The English
Standard Version is used for Scripture.
Below is an example of one devotional in the book.
Your Personal Faith
“But in your
hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense
to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with
gentleness and respect” 1 Peter 3:15
“Jesus said to
him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.’” John 14:6
Your
mind and heart, or soul, are amazing. One study found that we have about 86
billion brain cells and that each one connects to as many as 10,000 others
which gives us nearly 1000 trillion connections. Our physical brains are
astonishing. But what is more important than
the brain is the mind. The mind is your brain functioning as a thinking organ.
This is where you understand everything that goes on and where you understand what
you read and learn. Part of our brain also processes our feelings, and this is
what we may call our soul or “heart” or where we feel things like emotions.
This is where our thoughts and feelings about God are kept.
Having
your own personal faith is a wonderful way to think about keeping Jesus in your
life always. We are instructed to always honor Jesus in our hearts and by
keeping Him there; we should be ready to tell others about Him and even defend
our belief in Him for those who do not understand. Scripture also tells us that
when we defend Jesus, we should do this with kindness. This reflects how Jesus
wants us to treat all other people, with kindness.
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, as God in Christ forgave you” Ephesians”
4:32
Know this: your own personal faith is something that is always in your heart just
like the Holy Spirit. You use your personal faith and the Holy Spirit to
understand Bible verses, to think about what Jesus wants you to do, and to
pray. Prayer is something else that God believes is very personal. Jesus told
us how to pray:
“But
when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who
is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” Matthew 6:6
Jesus wants us to live our lives with Him inside of
our heart and mind. He says that we should use our personal faith every day as we interact with people. We should
perform acts of kindness and not expect to receive any reward for doing so
because We should not perform kind acts, so others will see us doing so. God
knows when we are doing these kind acts. He is watching and will reward us in
heaven. These acts of kindness need not be large or noticeable. It can be as
simple as helping your parents or brother and sister. It can be as small as
doing something for a teacher or friend that they may not notice until later or
they may never know who did the kind act.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness
before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no
reward from your Father who is in heaven” Matthew
6:1
About Terry:
