I'm Sorry

Matthew 18:21–22 KJV 1900

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

As parents, we never stop teaching our children. From helping them take their first steps, to riding a bike or driving a car. But many times we teach our kids undesirable things. No, not by our words necessarily, but by our actions. Sometimes without thinking about it we pass on bad habits to our kids that we wouldn’t want them to learn. Many times these habits aren’t a big deal, like biting our fingernails when we are nervous. But on occasion, our children see the way we handle something in an ungodly way. They learn forgiveness or the lack of it, from us. When we harbor bitterness and unforgiveness in our hearts, our children see that. Sometimes we need to ask our kids to forgive us for something we said or did, but we don’t.

Saying I’m sorry is not always something that comes easy to many people. It is something that we often teach by our example to our children. Sometimes we even teach through our own actions how to apologize the wrong way.

Like when we are trying to get someone to apologize to you by saying sorry to them in a prompt to get them to apologize. Never meaning any word said, just waiting for the words you want to hear form the other person.

Often we apologize for our kids when they said or did something to hurt someone else. Filling in the words for our kids may help us feel better, but it does nothing in teaching them how or why to ask for forgiveness.

But the worst thing we teach our children is that it is okay not to apologize by not apologizing to them when we have upset them. This is something I am still learning as a young dad. But it is just as true as our kids age, even to adulthood.

Peter in Matthew 18 thought he was doing great by offering that we should forgiveness seven times. But Christ showed him that the point isn’t to keep count. If the point was in the number of times to give out forgiveness we would be in great trouble with God for our many mistakes. But God always offers forgiveness to those who ask.

1 John 1:9 KJV 1900

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I would like to say sorry to you. It has been a few months since I have written a youth email to keep you informed with the things going on in our youth group. I do hope to keep up with a monthly email in the future.

Summer Happenings

We are excited and getting ready for a fun and busy summer. Here are a few things we are planning.

Camps

We have a new parent camp handbook ready. If you haven’t received one stop by the youth room and grab one to look through. We would like everything parent to go through the information inside.

Jr Camp

Jr.Camp Practice- This Sunday 6/13 from 12-4pm.

Jr Camp Parent Meeting- June 20th right after 11am service. (5min).

Jr Camp- June 21st- 25th

Sr Camp

Late night practice- July 14th from 6:45-10pm

Parent meeting- July 18th- 12pm

Sr Camp July 19th- 23

Split Connection Groups

We are praying and planning to split our connection groups a little differently for a short time. We will be splitting into a boys and girls class, and will be discussing some more serious topics.

The Dates for this Connection Group Split are June 27th- August 15th (or until finished)