What's Happenin' @ Forward Mid-Week

Below is a brief summary of what talked about tonight. Most of the time we teach through a series for several weeks at a time that way students that miss can get caught back up quickly, and so we can dissect a topic more fully than just a one night deal. Use the overview and questions for both you and your teen to answer and have a dialogue that continues outside the church walls and into your homes. Use this opportunity to see what God is teaching your student and also allow your student to see what God is teaching/taught you.

Current Series:

Road trips are awesome. Whether you’re heading to the
mountains with your family or driving to the beach with
your friends, the idea of packing up, grabbing your favorite
snacks, planning the perfect play list, and hitting the road just
sounds like an adventure. And it is! Maybe that’s because
new places are always exciting, or maybe it’s just that, more
than anywhere else, the unexpected seems to happen
on the road. Flat tires. Detours. Surprisingly great lunch
stops. Disappointingly awful gas stations. The unexpected
is just part of the trip. Life works a lot like that, too. We
start with a plan in mind, but things happen along the way
that change our plans, change our minds, or even change
our relationships. That’s when we have to decide to stick to
the plan or change course. This was especially true for the
apostle Paul. Long before GPS or interstates, Paul set out on
a series of road trips, and just like us, he experienced some
surprising, even life-changing moments on the road. As we
take a look at some key turning points on Paul’s road trips,
we discover that maybe the best thing that can happen on
our journey is a change of direction.

This Week's Recap:

Week #3 (03.22.2017)

Bottom Line: Treat everyone like they’re someone.

What we talked about:

One of the most important parts about road trips isn’t always where you’re going or how you get there, but who you’re going with. Think about it. A long road trip can be miserable with the wrong people by your side. But with the right people—people that listen to the same music as you, like the same restaurants as you, and talk about the same stuff as you—can be the time of your life! Isn’t that true of life as well? The truth is, most of us surround ourselves with people who are a lot like us. We have a tendency to drift toward people like us and drift away from people who aren’t like us. It’s completely natural, and something we all do, but what if we’re drifting away from certain people for the wrong reasons? What if we’re drifting away from certain people because we’ve assumed things about them that aren’t true or assumed we just won’t like them? And if we’re really being honest, deep down we know this drift isn’t okay. So we’re left with the question: What do we do with people who are different than us? To answer this question, we’ll look back at the Paul’s road trip one last time and see how his encounter with God changed not just himself, but the way he saw others as well.

Just for Parents:

By Kara Powell:

“I just wish my parents would realize I’m not who I was in
middle school. Their picture of me never changes—even
though I’ve changed.”

Without knowing it, this 17 year-old’s complaint about her
parents’ inability to appreciate her growth triggered an
internal alarm in me. Since our kids—now ages 16, 14, and
10—have been infants, my husband and I have seen their
unique personalities emerge.
 

One of our kids almost never complains—even when
they should exert themselves more. Another one…well,
let’s just say that no one has ever accused her of not
complaining enough.
 

One of our kids has been an introvert since she was a toddler.
She has two good friends and that’s all she needs. Our other
daughter is an off-the-chart extrovert. She loses count of her
friends. Literally.
 

It’s good that I know my kids’ tendencies. It’s bad when I
become so fixated on those tendencies that I don’t see how
they are changing.
 

In this series, your students are going to realize change
is possible. More than that, change is inevitable as we
encounter Jesus. Our hero in these three lessons, the Apostle
Paul, realized this firsthand. After Jesus got his attention,
he changed from being one of the greatest persecutors  of Christians to being one of the greatest builders of the church. Paul let Jesus change him.
 

As your students similarly let Jesus change them, they might
start acting a little differently.
 

All of a sudden, your son is a bit less selfish and empties
the dishwasher without being asked. Or your step-daughter
chooses on her own to put down her phone in the car so the
two of you can talk.
 

We hope you know your kids and how God has uniquely
molded them. But we also hope you know that God’s
love and grace continues to shape them into new
creations with new personalities, new victories, and
new struggles.
 

Parenting. It’s never boring.

T R Y  T H I S

So how can we pay attention to—and support—the ways our
kids are changing?
 

1. Make a list of ways your son or daughter is
different now than they were a year or two
ago. How do you feel about those changes? Which
do you applaud? Which make you anxious?
 

2. Talk to your child about (some or all of) your
list, making sure you talk at least three times
more about the changes you applaud than
those that make you anxious. And in fact, start
with the good stuff. We are all more open to critique
if we have first felt affirmed and understood.
 

3. Ask your child two questions about what
you’ve shared: What do you disagree with?
And, what makes sense or feels right to you?
In my experience with my own two teenagers, they
are far more likely to agree with certain observations
I’ve made if they first have a chance to express what
they disagree with.
 

4. Share with your child an area of your life that
you hope can change. Invite your child to do
the same.
 

5. Pray that God will make that change a reality,
just as He did so powerfully with Paul two
thousand years ago.