Recently, I shared an experience from a campout weekend with our christian scouting club. I haven’t found a challenge facing teens that we don’t face as adults.
We were breaking camp Sunday, trying to get our kids back home in time to chill out, decompress, do homework, or whatever else they needed to do to have a successful Monday school day. Packing gear, drying tent flies, cleaning bathrooms, the list of activities required to get a large group of campers packed up is long!
All of the teens had their work to do. The campsite was a flurry of activity. We always find it difficult to keep track of the kids as moving targets, ensuring that all are pulling together toward our common goal. We finally realized that a couple of our unit members were missing.
Two of our adult unit staff started searching the camp. After almost an hour of increasingly frantic searching, they were found canoeing on the lake! They were in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
guard it well, for it is your life.
Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
or walk in the way of evil men.
Avoid it, do not travel on it;
turn from it and go on your way.
Proverbs 4:13-15
Those two got themselves in serious trouble. They walked down a path, literally, that let them in the wrong direction. Had they stayed in camp, working to finish breaking camp with the rest of us, they wouldn’t have been tempted to do wrong. As adults, responsible for them, we were concerned about their disobedience and the character building opportunity they needed. In addition, we were concerned about their physical safety in an unsupervised watersport.
If you find yourself in jeopardy, in danger of making bad choices, consider the path you are on. Are friends or coworkers influencing you, and not for the good? Are you permitting habits in your life that leave you vulnerable to temptation? Maybe it is time to change something in your environment. Surround yourself with things, people, habits that keep you on a healthy path.
shared in the workplace 11/16/09