DEUTERONOMY 31:8
My slightly cold omelet matched the dull conversation. On this Saturday night all my girlfriends were at the school dance. There I sat in a booth at IHOP with a few bites of egg left. My dinner companions were two guys who couldn’t get a date, my youth pastor, and, Grace, my seventh-grade sister. The night had been a flop. I’d opted not to go to the dance and decided to spend the evening at a local Christian concert. The music was not all that wonderfully talent filled. So much for Christian convictions against high school dances. I panned the table and thought, Why on earth am I here? Was this how life was going to be for the rest of high school? Were my friends really blowing it by spending a night dancing and watching compromising movies? Were my personal standards going to ruin every weekend? I concluded miserably that my days were going to be gray. But it wasn’t much later that I snapped out of it and rediscovered a simple truth: God is with me. He is omnipresent and all knowing. He is with me when I’m awake and when I’m asleep. He is with me on my good days, and He is most assuredly there with me on my loneliest days eating IHOP omelets. This truth encourages me when I’m lonely and helps me see that in the grand scheme of things, that sticking to my standards really is the best choice.
Caroline J. Hornok, 15, Veritas Academy, Texarkana, TX
God, when I feel like following You is keeping me from all
the fun, please help me to see that I’m always making the
best choice by doing what You say.