Don't waste your time

This idea has been nagging at me for the past couple of weeks. I've actually been struggling with whether or not to write it, but last night, it hit me that I should write it. Well, it hit me in a new way that I hadn't thought about before.

If you don't know me very well, then you probably don't know how big of a procrastinator I am. I don't always use my time wisely and I end up wasting time that could be used spent doing better things. Instead, I waste my time on things like my computer playing games like Solitaire or Sims 2 for hours and hours.

One thing I try not to waste my time with is spending time with my family. Sometimes I feel like I spend too much time with my family. Hey it's better than not having a family at all. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded that our family won't always be there. We're not all gonna be on this earth forever.

What made me want to write this blog so much last night was my grandma. I spent the day with my cousin and her on Saturday and then yesterday I was asked to spend some time with her while my grandpa went out to spend some time with my Aunt Linda. Why didn't he take her with her? She's kinda hard to manage. She's confined to a wheelchair and she has Parkinson's. Some days are better than others. My cousin was complaining on Saturday that our grandma was having a bad day and then yesterday my grandpa said she was having an off day as well.

The truth is we shouldn't be complaining about having to spend time with her. Sure, I didn't exactly want to go spend time with her last night, but that would have been incredibly selfish of me. Plus, I had nothing better to do. Spending time with my grandma was time well spent. She may not always talk about the most rational things because either the medicine or her disease disorients her, but guys, there's no light way to put this; her days on this earth are numbered. I understand my grandma can be hard to deal with sometimes, but should we really be complaining about her? Or should we be spending as much time with her because we know she may not be here in a couple of years?

Ok, I have my own what if question for you. What if Jesus came to visit you? Would you use your time together wisely, or would you just let it waste away?

Ok, please hear me out on this one explanation. In the church, we have a ton of teachers. The ones that stick out to me are the ones teaching on Sundays and Wednesdays. Don't get me wrong Sunday school teachers, but I'm kinda not talking about you right now. I'm talking about the pastors in churches.

I don't know why, but right now Jesus kinda reminds me of a pastor. He was a teacher and our pastors at our churches are teachers too. Maybe I need to swap that around. Maybe it's our pastors that remind me of Jesus. I think that's how my question started.

Because I'm a teenager and I'm still in youth group, I'm gonna talk about youth pastors. Senior pastors, I don't see them getting as frustrated with teens as youth pastors can sometimes get. Or maybe like at my church, you have a senior pastor who also acts as the youth pastor on Wednesday. Talk about stressful.

I've had many Sunday school teachers, who did stuff with us outside of church, and not very many youth pastors. I have fond memories of all the teachers I've ever had in church and I didn't always waste time. When we had our last youth pastor interns, I really tried not to waste time particularly at the end of their stay. Why? Because not only did I really want to learn at that time, but I didn't want to waste their time.

Youth pastors are here to teach teens like me how to develop a relationship with God. I have a burning feeling though that some teens just don't care. I have a burning feeling that some teens are just wasting their time in youth group and wasting the times of others. It's like school; if you don't want to listen, don't, but don't bother the people who do want to listen.

We used to have problems with teens not listening. A few times our youth pastor wanted to really kick them out and make them sit with their parents, but he never did. He was nice like that...kinda. He also encouraged us to bring friends to events, but we never did. That's kinda a waste of time there. We should have brought friends, but a lot of my friends already have churches that they go to. Nowadays though I'm happy to invite friends to events...whenever we have them.

I don't understand why some kids don't want to go to youth group events. It's something to do on a Friday night if you have nothing better to do. Yeah, that's definitely me. I never have anything better to do on Fridays except maybe homework, but is that really something better to do?

I just wish kids, teens, would stop wasting their youth pastor's time. This might sound really bad, but don't take it that way, but those kids should be thankful they have a youth pastor at all. There are some kids, in actually a lot of churches that don't have youth pastors. Like I said before, I have a senior pastor who acts as a youth pastor on Wednesdays and he's cool and we have a lot of parents who volunteer to teach, which is really nice, but we don't have a youth pastor. It would be nice to have a youth pastor kinda close to our ages or that can relate to us more than our older senior pastor or parents because the younger youth pastors were probably just in that situation a few short years ago.

I want a youth pastor. We can't though because my church doesn't have the money right now since we just finally paid off our short term debt on our building in August of 2008 (Woohoo!). I wish we could have a youth pastor. Now don't go off on me lecturing me about how life is so unfair and we can't always get what we want. I know that so well.

It's true you know. Sure I want a youth pastor. Sure I want an interesting Sunday school class (not that the one I'm in currently doesn't interest me). Sure I want a new car (actually I'm happy with my car for the time being). Sure I kinda wish I had a boyfriend (ok that one isn't really true right now). Truth is we can't always get what we want.

So what do we do then? I think we just need to be content with where God has put us. I think we need to be content with what God has given us. I think we need to be thankful for where God has placed us and what He has given us.

The patience game. Has God played this one with you? Sometimes I know we ask God for something and He always provides of course, but He doesn't provide until the time is right.

I have a feeling the youth pastor thing is one of those patience times. I've been praying for a youth pastor for a while now and as much as I may hope we get one before I graduate in 6 months, I don't think we will, but I don't know about that because I know God works in amazing ways sometimes. Nothing stops me from praying for a new youth pastor though. I may be out of youth group in 6 months, but I'm not the only person in my youth group. There are kids that will still be in youth group after 4 of us seniors graduate and I think these teens need a youth pastor.

I'm really not sure what I may be missing out on because we don't have a youth pastor. It may be nothing or it could be a ton of things, but I don't want to see the next generation of my church without a youth pastor.

Hey you guys, don't waste your time. It may be fun to waste time and procrastinate on homework sometimes, but in things that involve the family or church, don't waste those times. Would you use your time with Jesus wisely?

Take advantage of the time you have with pastors, family, your church family, etc. And don't take the time you have with these people for granted. You never know when they might leave.