No lesson...That's O.K.

Recently I took the youth to Camp Impact.  There we had a great night where we played volleyball, a bunch of water games which included slip and slide kickball, ate a lot of food and had an overall good time.  However that wasn't everything that I had planned to do.  I had planned to teach a short devotional lesson to them while they were eating or just after.  Well, it wasn't until everyone had been picked up and I was about to leave after I had loaded everything in my car that I realized that I hadn't taught the lesson.

But, I wasn't that bummed that I forgot to do that.  The reason was that the night couldn't have been a bigger success.  I was reminded that sometimes we need to get together for the sole intent of enjoying one another's company.  Like anything in our lives we need balance.  Sometimes we just need to provide a safe environment for students to connect and have fun.  In doing this we do teach a valuable lesson.  The lesson is that they can have a good time where they can interact with other believers and enjoy one another's company without the assistance of drugs, sex, or alcohol. We will have plenty of other events this summer that have actual teaching time attached to them.

I'm currently looking forward to both a church wide movie night which will have a very brief challenge and to a youth only swim and study.  At the swim & study they will get an unspoken lesson again regarding modesty.  I have a rule that both girls and guys must wear shorts and a dark colored t-shirt in the pool.  Some may whine about it at first, but they quickly learn that they don't need to look 'sexy' to have fun swimming.

I guess this is all to say that in both church activities and in parenting it is about modeling how to live just as much as it is about having a great lesson.  You can't seperate the two.  If you do hypocrisy and double lives quickly follow.