FaithStudents

FaithStudents 6.1

“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” – Exodus 34:6 esv

This Summer Emphasis

When we look at who our Father in heaven is and understand His character this verse needs to be part of the conversation. Maybe it is the conversation ender because this is how God defines himself. It comes down to five different attributes: 

• Merciful
• Gracious
• Slow to Anger
• Abounding in Steadfast (Loyal) Love
• Abounding in Faithfulness

So this summer we have been looking at this verse and really only this verse. the emphasis is to know it well and understand what is in God’s character because we are His. If we come from the Father does that not mean that we own (in some ways) all of these attributes? 

I have to be honest I am better at some of these (Faithfulness) and struggle at others (slow to anger and gracious). However it is not about our deficiencies but His goodness in all of these and taking on His character. So in the areas I am weak, He will make me strong (2 Cor 12:10) and where I experience joy it is because of His goodness (1 Cor 12:11). 

This is what we have been talking about and studying and I pray that your students have received it well and more importantly they understand with greater depth who He is and what part they have in Him. When we know our place in the Kingdom of God it can take away much pressure in our present age. 

Let’s Get This Going

Coming up is the Fall. I am presently getting ready for sending my students to school I have a new Kindergartner this year so it will be fun to have one kid in each school (seriously, 5 kids in 5 different school buildings). I know what it is like to wish for more summer and also ask for the school year to come with students being busy in almost the same breath. 

However, we don’t look to survive, but we look to thrive this year and our hope is to have your students focused on an Eternal Kingdom and know that their placement, citizenship, and family is there. We are trying to find an understanding of being Blessed Exiles in all we do this side of heaven. 

We are finishing our prep for the school year in WNL and SMC and we are looking forward to what this year will be. Your student will be getting a postcard about upcoming dates in the next couple weeks and so be looking for that, but here is the quick rundown:

• Wed, 8/24 – Amazing Race (meeting at A.H.S. at 6:30pm)
• Sun, 8/28 – First Sunday Morning Class (East during 2nd Service)
• Wed, 8/31 – Prayer and Praise Night (East at 7pm)
• Wed, 9/7 – First Wednesday Night Live (East at 7-9pm)

Information can be found on our website, bi-weekly emails, text group (@FaithWNL to 81010)

I am here to minister to the students and do that by helping parents, leaders and guardians to disciple their students as best they can so please email me if you have a question, scott@faithchurchaustin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens
Student Ministry Pastor

Links

• Students Page

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.15

“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.” – Psalm 12:4 esv

A Moments Pause… 

We need a moment to stop and pause and think about what He has done.Thank Him for all that He has done this year and what He has enabled us to do with His grace and peace. So now we take a pause, a break, a moment to rest and get ourselves ready for the next ministry year. We pause because we want a fresh start that is not dependent on what last year was. We want him to do a new thing in us and in the students. So we pause to listen long enough to hear from the Lord. 

Moment of Conversion

Blaise Pascal is a French inventor, philosopher, author, mathematician and follower of Christ. He excepted Christ into his life and this is what he wrote in that moment:

The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr,
and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,

FIRE.
GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob, not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace. GOD of Jesus Christ. My God and your God. Your GOD will be my God.

Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD. He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel. Grandeur of the human soul. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. I have departed from him: They have forsaken me, the fount of living water. My God, will you leave me? Let me not be separated from him forever. This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified. Let me never be separated from him. He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel: Renunciation, total and sweet. Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director. Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words. Amen.

Blaise Pascal wanted this moment to stay with himself so he sowed it into all of his clothes so that moment would never leave him.

Lord, do a new thing in us…or let an old thing be seen with fresh eyes.

I am here to minister to the students and to do that by helping parents and guardians to disciple their students as best they can so please email me if you have a question, scott@faithchurchaustin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

How can I pray for you or your students?   

We will be taking a break from our bi-monthly newsletters for the summer. Be sure and look on our website for current information or sign up for REMIND and never miss a message.

Scott Owens
Student Ministry Pastor

Links

• Students Page

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.14

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

– 2 Peter 3:11-12a esv

Did these stories matter?

What just happened? What just took place?

We have ideas of grandeur and hope in the fall of what this year can be and what we want it to be. Then the year happens and we go into survival and ‘let’s just get through this’ mode. However, at some point we need to answer the question, ‘What did we learn?’

I believe that this year went well and had some great moments and some definite struggles. One main thing that I pray we learned from this year is that God can show up in the midst of life and in our joys and pains. Because our theme this year was Stories Matter it was important for us to listen and share our own (collective) stories about what God is doing.

In our current culture when it seems more average to pull back than to engage in what is going on in our lives we asked the students to engage and share what God is doing rather than keep it to themselves. We were blessed to have a WNL most weeks in which students and adults shared their struggles and their joys and the body of Christ looked like people needing each other.

Our desire was for these stories of holiness and godliness would not feel so distant, but instead that they would feel like family stories that is shared at meal time, family reunions and when we have a chance to be together. We want for stories of Moses, David, Esther, and Jesus to be family stories because we are all part of God’s family. So these stories are part of our ancestry and our past. They help make us who we are.

Action Point

‘what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?’ -2 Pe 3:11a

I started out with this verse because it is supposed to linger.

IF these stories are part of our family and IF these stories help make us who we are then what sort of people ought we to be in our lives to pursue holiness and godliness?

I ask this of you because I believe that the life you live at home is primary to what is taught on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. We can help drive home the scripture and the need for Christ to be the forefront of our lives, but what do you do and how do you make these wonderful stories of our past part of our lives. How do we teach our students to see these stories as their heritage and ownership in their story?

It is my prayer that this is helpful. I pray it starts the conversation for your family about sharing Christ life and making a difference.

If you have questions or if you just want to talk about this please let me know at: scott@faithchurchaustiin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

Links

• Students Page

Graduation Banquet is May 25th. Please RSVP and send in 5 photos of the graduate for the video

Sumer WNL begins June 29th

Sign up for Missions Start Here. July 25-29 Open to all 7th & 8th graders and their friends

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.12

“Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:29 esv

Blessed to be back 

I am back in the office and it is good to be back and in the same moment I could take another paternity leave and hang with my wife, new child and all my kids for another couple of weeks. Just being honest. Have you felt that way recently? Have you desired to be in two places at once at the same time, yeah, kinda weird right? 

We are in that crazy busy season of our ministry calendar where we are preparing for the upcoming busyness of summer and finishing the year as purposefully as we can. Once again stuck in two different places with the necessity to look up and look ahead and the pressing need to focus on what is right in front of us. Just weird!

However, as I focus on that in my job and in my ministry I also ask that in my own life too. How do I adequately look at what is ahead and focus on the next steps without losing my balance? Because it is a balancing act and with students in school and activities it is harder and more complex. Just a quick question to point out the struggle of this in your life…

What is your worst day of the week (busiest day) that you just kind of dread?

We have those days, those weeks and those months that just blindside us. However, we are consistently trying to get control of life and our situations. When we can get a hold of everything we feel like we have control, but that changes consistently. Control when my wife and I were both working with only one child is far different then when we now have 7 kids and one of us works outside the house. Life Changes, Control looks differently, but oddly enough busyness doesn’t change. We just know busyness doesn’t feel good. 

Corrie Ten Boom once said, ‘If the devil can’t make you sin he will make you busy.’ 

Famous psychologist Carl Jung had this little saying, ‘Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.’ 

John Mark Comer said, ‘People are just too busy to live emotionally healthy and spiritually rich and vibrant lives’.

So I am left with the question of how do I find a right pace in the midst of busyness and yet guide my family and our ministry without a panicked need to find control (don’t kid yourself we all have a panicked need of control that is hard to be around, just ask your family). Because control is an illusion and I am never in control, I have to make sure He is in control otherwise we lose the God-given blessing to be seen and felt. 

Where to go from here…

I can only tell you where I go from here, ‘Own the busyness that I unnecessarily take on and don’t get my focus stuck.’ You see I tend to miss the blessings that I feel God is wanting to show me because I am looking at things through a ‘get-this-done’ lens rather than a prayerful state and bringing it before the Lord. Secondly, I need to vary my gaze from what is down the road and what is right in front of me.

What about you? 

How you you deal with busyness if it gets in the way of God’s ability to show you the blessings around you? That is the tricky part, we tend to think our busyness as just something to handle. What if it does effect our blessed lives and how we see the blessings of the the Father? What if it got in the way of seeing the blessings round us? What is your phrase, mantra, parable, proverb that you are living by to get you to see Him?

I am here to minister to the students and to do that by helping parents and guardians to disciple their students as best they can so please email me if you have a question, scott@faithchurchaustin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

Student Ministry Pastor

Links

• Students Page

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.12

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” 
– Psalm 51:12 esv

Paternity Leave 

I don’t know if you know, but my wife is having a child. It is not our first, but nonetheless I will be stepping away from church and the student ministry for about a month while I am spending time with my family. It is a blessing to have a child and our family is looking forward to this time together. 

In the last few months we (my wife and I) have had many conversations about meeting our child and looking forward to being a family of 9 people. I am looking forward to meeting my son or daughter (we don’t know) but it has led me to look at blessings from the Lord and how many times we view God’s blessings from a self-centered vantage point.

I looked at blessings (from God) as things that I can understand as blessings or only as something that is defined as a blessing from a group of friends or trusted people in my life. However, I was not looking at what is a blessing to me from God’s view. I am not saying that you have to have more than one child to be blessed, I think all of you know I am not saying that. What I am saying is at times we try to monopolize the idea of God’s blessing. We try to control what a blessing truly is from our vantage point, or when we call somethings a blessing and others are not. we do not seek that definition from the Lord. 

Do you know what I am talking about? All too well maybe? 

The reason I bring this up is because if you control what is a blessing from God or what is and what is not a blessing from God, then you can control what God asks you to do. How about this, have you ever thought this…

‘God wouldn’t ask me to do that…’
‘God knows I don’t do this well…’
‘God knows our finances or schedule…’

I have had a wrong view of ‘being blessed’ at times and failed to see the joy and awe of following Him when that is what He was trying to show me. I missed that and I am trying to take that back. So I am going to spend time with a new baby that I struggled to look forward too at times and with a wife that I battled against too much and with a family that shows me daily how blessed I truly am. 

I am blessed to be in a church that supports my family. 
I am blessed to be around such a great cloud of witnesses in Alongsiders that ministers with me and teaches me weekly. 
I am blessed to have an assistant that is more reliable and discerning than she gives herself credit for. 
I am blessed to work with an Intern that is more teachable and gifted than I was at his age. 
I am blessed to be part of staff that is capable and caring for my Church family. 
I am blessed to know students that share their stories for the sake of other students growth. 
I am blessed to spend time with people that are true and honest and give more than they take. 
I am blessed to minister…

I will be back in Mid-March and if you have any issues please contact Chris Grev at students@faithchurchaustin.org or our church intern Will Parks at williamparksfaithchurch@gmail.com or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

Links

• Students Page

FaithStudents

Faith Students 5:11

“Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” – Ezekiel 33:11a esv

Facing the Giants week 

People need to know the love of Jesus, the truth in the gospel and the knowledge that we are free from anxiety, worry and doubt because we have a God that will never forsake us. That is a message we need to preach to ourselves and we need to share with others. 

Have you ever had someone accept Christ in front of you? 
Have you ever been lucky enough to see someone choose to follow Him?
Have you seen the light of Christ come in to someone’s heart where there once was darkness?  

I had the lucky opportunity to spend a week sharing the gospel on the streets of Amsterdam to people that mostly spoke English. I had the lucky chance to walk through the streets of 4 large cities praying for people and then sharing Christ with them.  the one thing that you do when sharing Christ – first you listen. 

Listening is a huge part of sharing Christ with people and it is hard to share with people without knowing their story (it is still absolutely possible to do in a loving way, but not my preference). However, there is a point where you stop just listening and you engage. We need to engage with the people around us to share with them the hope and value we receive from Christ. 

There is a necessity to take action and engage instead of just listening all the time and so that action needs to come when we say, ‘they don’t have to live like that, I’m going to share with them.’

We listen to the enemy (Satan) that Christians are hypocrites, judgmental, and not loving. This is a lie straight from hell. Don’t listen to those lies. But take the time to listen to others and look for a chance to engage and share of His hope and value of us. 

Action Point

This week is our #facingthegiants week and we are committing to share Christ with friends, family and anyone God puts in front of us. last week we had the students write down a number of how many people they want to share their testimony about christ too. Some students put down 0, 1, 2, 3 and even one student put down 10. In total we had 129 committed conversations that we are going to try and have. Now we may hit that number, we may only have 10 conversations or 50. 

Either way it is not about the number of conversations we have, but that we have conversations with others. If we have fifteen conversations, praise Jesus, that is fifteen people that didn’t know before this week. However, it is also about getting students used to sharing their faith and not seeing it as difficult, scary and hard. What if students look at it from the perspective that they got to share and it went well or that they got to see a friend accept Christ. That is fuel for our faith. 

I am going to ask you to do two things:

1. Pray for our conversations and for God to show up where there is joy in sharing. 
2. Talk to your students about when you share and how it went well or not well. Let’s demystify it to our students and make them think this is just what we do, because it should be. 

It is my prayer that this is helpful. I pray it starts the conversation for your family about sharing Christ life and making a difference. 

If you have questions or if you just want to talk about this please let me know at: scott@faithchurchaustiin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

Links

• Students Page

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.10

“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” – Deuteronomy 6:7 esv

20 Conversations 

What conversations do you have with your students that prepare them for life and success? 
Is there purpose and order to what you discuss with them or is it fairly random? 
What is the right things to focus on that teaches them what they need to know?

Great questions…I’m glad I asked them. Well, there are a lot of lists you can give your students or just work through with them; 20 Conversation starters to reach someone for Jesus, 20 Basic Life Skills Your Teen Should Have, and my personal favorite…just 20 conversations. 

What are the 20 conversations? Well, I am not going to give you the whole list right now, but I am going to give you the list in my email I send out on Wednesday. That email subject line will be Tonight we discussed…

The purpose of this night is to give students an understanding of how to prepare for what life throws at you. Some parents do this very often, but some of our students may not get this in their homes. This is the list of life lessons that I teach my children and I pray they understand. So I am sharing this list with you as a resource and also telling you that having a plan is a good idea, but allowing life to allow these lessons to teach is good too.

Action Point

Here is just a taste of some of the conversations that we will talk about briefly: 

• •Every decision has a benefit or a consequence
• •View happiness as a by-product not a pursuit
• •You will sabotage yourself if you cannot delay gratification
• •Life is not fair and not everyone wins
• •Success will likely take longer than you think it will
• •The more resources you’re given hurts you being resourceful

However, we will just be scratching the surface of these topics and I encourage you to drive this home. tweek this list for yourself and make it yours. I have said it before and I will say it over and over, Parents are the major Spiritual Influencers in a students life. It does not matter how cool or amazing us Alongsiders (Adult Leaders) are, we never eclipse what your students get from you. 

That means that life lessons need to be taught and having a direction or an idea of what they need to learn is important, but not controlling when those lessons come is equally important. It maybe after a basketball practice or after a failed test or when a friend rejects them that these lessons maybe driven home. Have them as tools to teach when the time is right, but be watching about when they need to learn them. 

It is my prayer that this is helpful. I pray it starts the conversation for your family about preparing students for life and making a difference. If you have questions or if you just want to talk about this please let me know at: scott@faithchurchaustiin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

LINKS

• Students Page
• Remind: text @faithwnl to 81010. You will receive updates, reminders, etc., for WNL and Faith Students.

EVENTS

Registration for Challenge is now on our website. Challenge Conference is July 3-8, 2022 in Kansas City, KS. Cost is $550/student

Facing the Giants week is Feb 6-12, 2022

District Blitz April 8-10. Registration will begin in March.

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.9

“when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  Mark 2:4-5 esv

Faith to be seen 

Can faith be seen? Can you actually see faith happen in front of you? Is it visible?

Can you look at a person and see their trust in the Lord? Can you look at someone else and hear their proclamation of faith, but when it comes to see it… it’s just not there. 

Maybe that is an unfair question, but I only think it is an unfair question if you have someone in mind that does not live out faith, but says they have faith.  It also could be an unfair question if you are convicted yourself that your own faith is not seen by others. Either way, asking the question, ‘Can faith be seen’ is good to ask, but it is even better to answer. 

In Mark 2, a group of friends in the midst of a mild mob rip open a roof to lower a friend down into a house for the sake of having him healed. From all I have read this is not a local custom. This is a moment for Jesus to supply a need for people that are asking for just that specific need, Healing. Not for all of them or most of them, but this one guy.

The response is that ‘Jesus saw their faith,’ (Mark 2:5a). Can we see faith…maybe if we are discerning and if we are looking for evidences, but Jesus can see faith. I am struck with the saying in John 2 when Jesus says ‘we will see greater things than these’ (John 2:50). So is it possible to see faith the way Jesus can? 

We tend to lean on the evidences of faith and that is not bad at all, but don’t we also know that and tend to show others the evidences they are looking for to show a great faith? Basically, what I am asking is if we are smart can’t we just fake it pretty well? 

What I love about this story and about this interaction is that it is messy (a guys house gets ripped up). This is not a projected faith, but a carnal faith. This is not calculated, but the actions dire and for a need. What kind of faith is seen by Jesus? 

Action Point

I ask these questions because we are wanting to ask these questions of our students students in the next coming months. 

• Is faith seen? 
• Who sees your faith?
• Does faith triumph over fear? 
• How do you live with faith triumphing over fear?
• Does fear win in 2022?
• How do you discern steadfast faithfulness?

These are not easy questions, but let’s be honest, these are not easy times. If we don’t challenge our students resolve and grit to know and seek God’s truth and spirit in this time, what good is their faith going to be at all for the rest of their life?

If you have questions or if you just want to talk about this please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

LINKS

• Students Webpage

EVENTS

Jan 17: Registration for Challenge begins. All information is on our website
Jan 22nd-DayVenture. Registration is online and ends Wednesday Jan 19
Feb 6-12: Facing The Giants week
Mar 2: Registration for District Blitz begins online
Mar 23: Austin Student Rally at Knowlton Auditorium
Apri 8-10: District Blitz in Duluth, MN
May 18: Final WNL
May 25: Graduation Banquet

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.8

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” – 1 Chronicles 2:9 esv

A Change in Communication… 

We are going to start the year a little differently… we are no longer using Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. 

I am sure that many of you have seen the reports, rumors and news stories about what Facebook and social media platforms have done unapologetically to our culture and our information over the last decade or so. 

Like many of you, I have been increasingly frustrated and appalled by the way some companies have used their business to effect our culture in an immoral and self-focused way. I, for one, am no longer willing to take part in this and more importantly I do not want to enable our students to enter it by giving them one more reason to log on. I realize by not putting Faith Student news on social media that doesn’t fix the world, but it does take away another reason for students to go there. 

So beginning in January, we will no longer be posting anything on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. We will be deleting those accounts as well and try and eliminate our Twitter account (honestly haven’t used it since I got here because I can’t access a deleted email account). We will also refrain from uploading videos on YouTube as well. 

Action Point

So where is the information that you need to know? Great Question

We still have four main avenues that you can get information about Faith Students: 

1. Parent bi-monthly Newsletter Emails
2. Website
3. Text Alerts (Remind)
4. Monthly printed Calendars. 

If you are reading this then obviously you get our newsletter. We are sending this out to the parents every other week so we will continue to do that with information for the next couple of weeks and important dates in the coming months. We may change back to once a week emails, but honestly, we get a low click-rate so there doesn’t seem to be a need change.

Our website is where we will make the most effort because we will try and keep that updated twice a week. Our plan is that YOU can rely on the website to be correct and all information about regular meets (WNL and Sunday Morning Class) and other events (retreats, trips and other) will be there.

We have text messages that go out to students at least once a week and we will step up to those coming twice a week. The hope is that students and parents will know what is happening. You can opt out of the text messages whenever you want. To get on that list you need to text @FaithWNL to 81010.

Lastly, we have monthly calendars that we hand out to students once a month. They are half-sheets with events on them. 

In a situation like last Wednesday night when WNL was cancelled due to the storm we will email out by 5pm and also send a text message to students and update our website. We are not wanting to make it difficult for your student or you to be part of the ministry, but we are desiring to make a change. 

If you have questions or if you just want to talk about this please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org or check out our site at faithchurchaustin.org/gather/students

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

Links

• Students Page
• Facebook
• Instagram

Upcoming Events
Dec 22: Rescheduled WNL Christmas Party
Dec 26: No SMC
Dec 29: No WNL
Jan 2: No SMC
Jan 22: DayVenture

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.7

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14 esv

Stories Matter… 

Every parent wants their student to come and talk to them. We as parents want honesty and openness from our students and we try and reward them when we it happens. However, I do not know many of us that have been 100% honest with our own parents.  

I was not always honest with my parents. I lied at times or I misled them and that led to me breaking their trust in me. Most of us know this from personal experience and I would think that it motivates us to encourage our own students to be honest with us and then try and cultivate an atmosphere of openness. If that’s what we work for with our student, do we have that with our Father in heaven? 

I find it a fascinating conundrum that the Lord asks us to be honest with Him yet He already knows everything going on in our lives. It reminds me of a story about a grandpa with quarters in his pocket. This grandpa would visit his grandkids and would have a pocket full of quarters and when his grandkids would come up and ask for a quarter he would give them a quarter. All weekend long he would be giving them quarters.

One weekend when the oldest grandkid come up and asked for a quarter the grandpa gave her a quarter, but then she asked, ‘Grandpa all weekend long I come and bother you by asking for quarters, why don’t you just give me all the quarters now so that I don’t have to bother you all the time?’ The Grandpa just smiled at her and said, ‘That’s okay, I like it when you come up and bother. I want you to keep coming up and bothering me, cause I love you.’ 

Our Father in heaven is waiting for us to ‘humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways’ (v.14). We are known to others as people who seek His face, desire to not figure out everything ourselves but seek wise counsel in the Father.

Action Point

How do we show dependence to the Father in this season?

This Christmas season it is important for our students to know that His people pray and find hope in Him. So I encourage you to pray your dependence to the Father this year. Come not from a place of experience but instead dependence and need. 

If you have questions please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

LINKS

• Students Page
• Facebook
• Instagram

UPCOMING EVENTS
Dec 15: WNL Christmas Party @ East
Dec 19: Holiday Worship Night @ 7pm Main Building
Dec 20: FEED A FAMILY Packing @ Hy-Vee
Dec 22 & 29: NO WNL
Dec 26: No SMC