Loving God, please protect our youth from the dangers present in our world today. Be with us through sickness and health, sorrow and joy, loneliness and friendship, success and failure. Give us the courage and strength to make the right decisions. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.

Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; GIVE praise, O servants ofthe LORD, YOU who stand in the house of the LORD, IN the courts of the house of our God. Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to his name, for he is gracious. (Psalm 135 verses 1 to 3) Psalm 135 says to us to praise the Lord, to sing of his good works. We must not only thank him for what he has done for us, but praise him for what he done for others.

Praise is celebrating WHO God is and WHAT He does. It means filling our minds with His greatness, love, power, and compassion. Praise is also a choice we make to celebrate God’s goodness when life is at its worst. Many people find it difficult to praise God. Often, we don’t understand what it means to praise God or we’re not sure how we can praise God.

Even though it can be challenging at times, as young people there are numerous ways for us to praise the Lord.

• By attending church regularly and participating in the services. There area number of ministries for us to actively get involved in – The Children’s Fellowship Hour; Youth Group; Altar Servers; Choir or even the Usher’s Guild.
• By obeying His word – peer pressure from our friends at school or those we interact with from our neighborhoods can often lead us to do things that are not pleasing in the sight of God but we must obey God’s commandments and do what we are taught in Bible study and listening to the word at church.
• By praying often – when we pray we speak directly to God and He knows all our heart’s desires. Sometimes we may be burdened by challenges; it may be an upcoming exam; peer pressure; bullying or some other challenge that young people face but if we talk to God, He will help us.
• In our daily actions – whether we are at school, at play, or any other every day activity, we should always be kind to others, be truthful to our parents, teachers and friends, show love and compassion to others – do not pick fights with anyone or do not bully others.
• Song and dance – many persons are still of the belief that the traditional hymns are the only songs to sings at worship and praise God and they frown upon dancing or shaking a leg in church. The modern hymns or songs and the dances we use to express ourselves are not vulgar or unsightly in the eyes of God. We are living in a changing society and person must learn to adjust to change, even the church. When young people introduce certain music or even dance to the church we are not introducing anything bad but just adding to the worship methods that appeals to our generation.
• Bible study / Storytelling – Attending Bible study or storytelling classes that can help young people to understand the teachings of the Bible in our own language. This can be done outside of the worship session where young people would be in a comfortable setting so they can be free to let down their hair and speak openly among their peers.

In Luke chapter 18 verse 15 to 17 Jesus tells his disciples to “suffer the little children to come on to him to bless them. In doing so he was passing on His teachings to all, not excluding the children who the disciples thought were not able to receive or understand the word of God.

Older folk always say to bend the tree while it is young, this holds true to what Jesus was telling His disciples, the only way for us to learn is by being taught from early, no child too small to receive God’s word and live it. Helping us to grow spiritually from young will help us to be better men and women of the future.

Let us pray

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank you so much for all the precious children in this world. We know that we mean so much to you. We pray you would help us do all we can to protect and give us the start in life we deserve. Help us to worship and sing praises in Your glorious name without fear or persecution, that we may live lives according to Your will this and every day in Jesus’ name.

Amen