A message especially for young people to recognize the impact of the choices they make today to the outcomes of their future.

National Family Retreat 2019: A Heart of Love

<p>A message especially for young people to recognize the impact of the choices they make today to the outcomes of their future.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Restoration International

Alane Waters

Tom Waters

Your Future Begins...

For some of you, you might have wished that you had done a little bit more planning for your future when it could have began 3 years ago and you wish you might have, you know, saved a little bit more money or whatever it might be, but today you're going to have an opportunity to re-look at where your future is heading from here on out.

We have the unusual and we would call it a privilege or opportunity that we meet lots of young people and we've watched lots of young people grow up while our young people have grown up.

So that puts our daughters up there in their later 30s.

It's been a blessing to watch young people grow up, but we've also learned a lot of things, and we've seen some of the things that have happened, things we've learned in our own family, and in other families where, because we want to have our young people protected from the needless wrong influences and is that appropriate?

We should be as parents guarding our young people from needless influences that will corrupt our young people.

But sometimes we don't always find the balance in how we do that and so we have seen a whole gamut of things over the last 30 years of ministry in our own home and in the homes of many other people.

And this message today is hoping to take a look at how some of that can find balance.

So young people, What is the desire you have as you get older?

What do you want to do when you are in your adult life?

Let's see some hands and let's get some answers, yes.

He wants to work with emergency medical service.

Now let's look at some of the older, those are children, yes, go ahead.

Okay, anybody else have anything they want to, any ideas that you want to do?

Let's look into some of the teens who have visions, yes.

Are you into dolphins or something, or just general marine biology?

Anyway, so children have lots of ideas, children have lots of goals, children have lots of visions and dreams and aspirations and that carries into their teen years but what are we doing as parents to nurture those viable, those interests, those aspirations because the children's future begins now.

Actually, our future has already begun, hasn't it?

But many of us haven't done, made choices that have prepared us for where we are today, but the good news is wherever we find ourselves today, we can begin from this point and move it forward, right?

But are we as parents helping to inspire our young people in their future dreams and desires?

That's a question because this message isn't just for the young people.

Because we have seen young people who are motivated, who have incredible talents and desires, and because that's not nurtured in the home, they then don't fulfill their dreams, and they become what we would call more stagnant or less productive than they could have been with the talents God has given them and the desire that God implanted in their heart because it hasn't been nurtured.

So we have a responsibility as parents, and young people have a responsibility with the future of our children.

So do you like thinking about the future?

You know, at Northeast Family Retreat, we are probably this far from the first person who sits on the first row.

It's kind of an unfortunate disconnect, but we can't help that, okay?

But we want you, this is a bit of an interactive presentation today.

So when we ask questions, it's okay for you to answer.

And if you want to put your hand up, that's even better, because we're gonna be looking for hands out there.

So I heard a lot of younger young people, and that's great, because Some of you, because you're thinking the way you are, my wife, since she was about 5 or 6 years old, she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

I wanted to be a nurse, a missionary nurse, out in the bush somewhere.

And praise God, my parents nurtured that.

I pursued that and I had the opportunity to fulfill that dream.

And that was an experience in my life that helped to set my course for my future adult life and in being a mother and a Christian and have a passion for spreading the wonderful gospel that God has entrusted to us.

And so, she never lost sight of that and that's great for some of you young people, but I didn't hear a lot or see hands raised of these 17, 18, 20 year olds.

That doesn't mean you don't have a vision or that you don't have direction, but it was very important.

It was interesting too, we were just having this conversation.

She's 19 and she wants to go to Nicaragua.

Let me just kind of put this in a capsule of time.

There were no computers or communication.

The best we would have is called pen and paper And a ham radio and a ham radio, and that was that was very spotty, but I would number my letters I would send home and my parents would number their letters I would they would send me and it would literally take sometimes 2 and 2 and a half months to get those letters and there were gaps in the numbering system so this is put yourself there I just want to you know help tune it in because young people go to the mission field all the time and they've got WhatsApp and they've got this and that and all the other ways to communicate, Skyping and so It's not the same as it was then, so now we're going to put it in that perspective.

Yeah, so how do you dads think you'd feel?

Because I know what it's like to have girls that are 19 years old.

And what do you think her dad said when she came home from college, Southern Missionary College and said, I want to go to Nicaragua for a year.

So I understand there's a lot of young people here.

And sometimes we, as parents, are not recognizing how we can help facilitate and fuel the future by the grace of God of what our young people want to do.

To be a part of them and if we will be a part of them, not just dads, dads and moms, be a part of this conversation as they grow up, it can become an incredible experience in the hands of God.

She did go to Nicaragua for 1 year, and it was an amazing experience.

I thank God that he preserved her through some of what she went through.

Sometimes when our young people bring us ideas, as I brought this idea to my parents, my dad was not raised in a Christian home.

My parents became Christians after we children were all born.

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Your Future Begins...

Transcript

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Parent Conference

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