Walking Wisely Weekend 2007

This last weekend of Walking Wisely was incredible, the theme was called "Charmed" & the idea behind this is about how we view relationships in this very idealistic way. That if only I was with him/her I would be happy, or if he/she would just acknowledge I exist, ask me to the prom, etc, everything would be so much better, and also the unrealistic image that our media portrays relationships to look like.

Although the weekend was about dating and relationships, more than anything it was about the importance of students finding their identity in Christ and their worth in Him and growing up to be everything that God has in mind for them.

Jarret Stevens one of the speakers stressed that the people you date, how you view dating, and the people that surround yourself with have a huge impact on how you view God, yourself, and being the person that God wants you to be.
A great question that Jarret asked us is:

"What do you think of when you think of God?" & "What do you think God thinks of you?"

I feel like all the decisions we make come down to these two questions. When I look back on decisions I've made that I wish I could do over again, I realize that at the time there was apart of me that wasn't quite trusting God & believing His promises, or I didn't think highly enough of myself so made a decision that I thought would make me feel more loved, or more accepted.

This goes back to why knowing what God thinks of you and believing that you are worthy of His love is so huge. Because of Jesus you are already fully accepted, worthy, unconditionally loved, you don't have to prove you are worth being loved.

Jarett gave the example of Samson in the bible and how Samson was a man that was set apart by God, and that because that possibly Samson didn't see himself as God saw him & how special God viewed Him, he made decisions that led to a very tragic death. Although Samson had incredible super human strength, this story was more of Samson's weaknesses. He was betrayed by three different women and over the course of these relationships broke all three of the Nazarite vows that were given to him at birth. He compromised. I wonder how differently it would have looked if he really did see himself the way God did and really trusted Him.
I think this story would have looked so much differently if Samson had not lost God's perspective on his life.

Challenging Questions:

-Do you fear being alone?
-Are there parts of of who you are that have been given away to win the affections of someone else?
-Have you compromised who you are?
-Are you surrounding yourself with people that encourage you to be the person God wants to be? Who you really want to be?
-Are you dating someone whose identiy is in God and encourages you in your walk?
-Before making lists of characteristics of what you want in a boyfriend/girlfriend, are you also holding yourself to these standards?
-Who are you when no one else is around?
-Has your identity been found in what only others say you are or the people you have dated say who you are?

These were really challenging questions and it was so cool to see how the students responded, and it was a great reminder for the leaders too.

My prayer for myself, my small group, best friends, family and every child of God is to know where your identity lies, that you were created for a purpose, that when God made you He said that you were "good", that you were worth dying for and you are unconditionally loved.

I pray that these truths would be so deeply engrained that when it comes to love, self worth, & God that every decision would reflect confidence in Christ and the security that your identity is in Him.