Do you have a speed limit?

                                                  

The following text is taken from chapter 3 from a book I am currently writing. I hope that it's a blessing to you and I'd love to hear your feedback from it. 

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 “SLOW DOWN!” Those are probably the last words many passengers have yelled in a car crash. Can you imagine it in your mind? The driver is speeding down the road not noticing the dangerous ditch coming up ahead of him. The person in the passenger seat sees the ditch. They yell; they shout out a warning. But then it's too late. I believe the teen years are like journeying down the highway of life-there is danger everywhere and if we don’t watch out we will end up wrecking our lives. In life we need to have a speed limit. 

 Gaining speed

  In America, us teens are constantly busy with school, friends, and social media. We fill up all our time in the day and jam our schedules full! We’re constantly texting our friends to see when the next big event is and gossiping about the latest romance. We pack our minds full with thoughts of television shows, our Facebook status, and the new cute girl or guy at school.

  If you’re like me you enjoy living a busy life—doing fun things, hanging out with friends, and planning for our futures as adults. While we should live a good and productive life I believe many of us are going way to fast—we’re flying through life. Teens are just living in the moment enjoying the thrill that being older brings. They don’t give much thought to spiritual things but want to “live it up” and have as much fun while they still can.

  I can’t even begin to tell you have many teens I know that are so excited about the freedoms their adulthood will bring them. They can’t wait to let their wings out and soar. They want to take control of their own lives as soon as possible.

  High School students are busy with schoolwork trying to plan out what they want to do when they graduate, if they are or are not going to college, and where. Some are busy with their jobs and relationships, but in the midst of our busy teenage lives we have lost sight of something very important.

   We’ve lost sight of time spent with God. We’ve replaced time spent with God with time spent with ourselves and this world.

  We’ve lost sight of spending personal time with him. We’re moving too fast, always planning for the next day and having our own agenda. We think we’ve got all our lives planned out and can’t wait to be an adult with our own freedoms and responsibility. The fact is, time is short. Why hurry it? Our teen years are the most important years in our lives—so why are we trying to pass the time and counting the days till we become an adult? God gave us this time in our lives for a reason, and that reason is not partying and just having fun. I’m not saying God doesn’t want us to have fun, but I am saying he has much bigger and much more important plans for our teen years.

 We can do more for God now than probably any other time in our future lives. As young people we have more energy, more zeal, and more time. The teen years should be a time to grow and spend time with God, but instead we use these years to satisfy our flesh and cravings of adulthood. 

If we aren’t the teens God needs us to be we’ll never be the adults he needs us to be.

We must start serving God now. Don’t push it off till later. So many teens have the mindset that they’ve got to get their lives all figured out before they can turn their focus to God and his work and will for their lives. The truth is his work for us begins NOW. We must first find out who God wants us to be before we go on deciding what we want to be. We must slow down our schedules and make time for God and his will for our lives. So many teens use the teen years to date, party, and just have fun, but what will this matter in the long run? What is the eternal value of these petty things?
All of that stuff just brings pain and repercussions, not life-long fulfillment. I work on a bus route and I have nine year old girls already talking about the boy they are currently dating! How can this possibly be? How could they be thinking of such things at such a young age? The truth is our world is promoting adult pleasures for us young people, but not adult responsibility. They want us to be able to date and be in relationships but they don’t show the moral responsibility these things bring. The truth is we don’t need to fill our minds and time with these things now. The world says you aren’t special if you’re single. God says singleness is a gift (1Co 7:32 - But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: ) when in a relationship a huge part of our time and thoughts go into the person we are with, but at this time in our lives all of our time and thoughts need to be directed towards the Lord and his plan for our lives.

Slow down.

Don’t be in a hurry to be an adult. Use the time God has given you to make a different today. Don’t waste the time God has given you now dreaming of a time not yet to come. Good things come to those that wait for God’s best. Instead of devoting your time and energy to pursuing a relationship with a special someone pursue a relationship with your very special God. Slow down, and give your time to God. 

Keep shining bright

~Brittney Johnson