PASTOR’S CORNER: God’s Plan: A message to the youth. Part I

Community, in anything, God has a plan.

When it comes to his children, he always has a plan. If you are a child of God, this means that there is a plan for you, especially when it comes to our youth. It may not look like it now. It may not feel like it now. In fact, it may look like anything but a plan, but he does.

His plan, I can tell you now, is nothing but good for us. As any good Father, he wants only the best for his children. He intends to bless, bless and bless on top of blessings. He wants to protect, guide, prosper, build up and see his children do well in his sight and in this life.

I know I did as a father and many of you did as well. When they did well, it made me feel good and I reciprocated by rewarding them with treats, and I wanted to do it because they were mine and I was delighted when they did well. God wants to bless us with every good and perfect gift for the Bible tells us so (James 1:17). When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7). God does and he has plans for those of us born into his family.

Parents, when our children were born, we had high hopes for them. We wanted to give them the best life that we could give them. Some parents started a college fund and others set up a trust fund for them or set in motion a will. They made provisions because they wanted them to become productive citizens, get good grades, graduate high school, pursue higher academic achievements and have a good career. As long as they stayed on the right path, there was nothing that we wouldn’t do for them.

We all had a plan for our children. No parent that is a good parent wanted their child to grow up and become gang banger, peddle fentanyl drugs, drink themselves to death, sell their bodies in prostitution, murder somebody or rob a store or bank or abort children that they are not prepared for. When we held that child for the first time in our arms, we had big dreams and good plans for that child, but sometimes our plans are derailed. What we sometimes dream of turns out to be a nightmare. They end up in places that we as parents did not dream of for them.

Coming up and especially in my teenage years, my mother had high hopes for me because she saw in me the ability to be something and do something in life. Being someone who only went so far in school herself, she wanted me to go further than she did. She wanted it for all of us, but I remember her willingness to help me if I chose to pursue it. She believed in education and would have supported me in any endeavor to achieve higher education and she did. She was even willing to get me a car to drive so that I could go.

She saw the potential, but I didn’t see it myself at the time. Like so many young people, I did not see the seriousness and the importance of a higher education. I didn’t look down the road. I was only living in the now. But, what my mother missed during those years, I was able to achieve after she passed away. I went on and pursued a higher education, for in Christ I saw it.

She did see who I became in Christ. She was so proud of the minister/preacher I had become.

So it is with our heavenly Father, young people, this morning, God created you for a purpose regardless to how you came here. I don’t care where you were born or what side of town you were born on. I don’t care who your momma or daddy is or what they did. I don’t care what your last name is. You may not be beautiful and handsome according to the world’s standard, but in God’s eyes you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You may feel like the black sheep of the family. You may have been told that you will never amount to anything and that you are nothing, have been put down because of who your momma and daddy are, and bullied at school for no reason. But the God of heaven has a plan for you