3rd Place

Last night Matt Mead, head coach of the Lady Eagles basketball team of Robert Morris University, came and shared with us during halftime of the Superbowl.

He had some great things to say. One comment really stood out to me though. He told the students to put themselves third.

In today's culture this isn't something that is easy. More often than not we are thinking of ourselves first. We want to be noticed, be the best, look the best, have lots of friends, fit in, win. Just think of the whole premise of the Superbowl-both teams were there to win! They weren't putting the other team first at any point during that game!

If we live in a culture that enforces being the best then how is anyone supposed to put themselves third?

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells us to love God, and love our neighbors. These are the greatest commandments.

Put God first, others second, and yourself third.

Are you third or first?

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Daddy!

This last week at HS youth group we took a risk and opened up a can of worms. For the past few weeks we've been talking about love. This week we wanted to get the students to really think about the love that God has for them.

They know God loves them. You probably know it too. You've sang the song (Jesus Loves Me), you've read it in the Bible (John 3:16, among others), and you've probably been told a time or two.

But do you really know? Do you really feel God's love? Do you really think God loves you?

In Matthew 7:9-11 we get this great description of a dad. It finishes up, though, by telling us that God is our dad. There is a huge difference though between our dads on earth and God being our dad. You see, God is perfect-in every way.

Thus, the can of worms. Some of the students in our youth group have great dads, others have OK dads, some have crappy dads, and still others don't even have a dad. You also fit into one of those categories. Regardless of which, though, everyone shares this common bond: the dad that they do or don't have is not perfect. He has flaws.

God calls himself our father. A lot of times we refer to him as our father. For some of us though, that's a hard thing to think about because we aren't fond of our earthly dads (or don't have one).

When a child is little they have this ingrained perception that their parents are perfect. Eventually that wears off though, and they realize that their parents have faults (there is a psychological term for this, but I can't remember or find it!).

One of our youth volunteers, Steve, puts it this way:

• "The point is that our Heavenly Father is perfect without flaws and needs to be seen on a different level than our parents. When we are little our parents seem like gods, until we see them make a mistake. But no matter your relationship with your father (or mother) it is very important to keep improving your relationship with God."

That's awesome insight right there!

When a child loves someone (especially a parent) and they see them, their natural reaction is to run to them. I have a good friend who's son will run to him and scream "Daddy!" every day when he gets home from work. He doesn't schedule time for his daddy, he doesn't plan a conversation with him-he runs to him. Why? Because he knows his Daddy loves him and he wants to love him back.

Do you love God like that? Do you know that God loves you like that?

Your daddy is supposed to love you. Whether he does or doesn't or whether you have one or not, your heavenly daddy loves you-seriously loves you.

God's your daddy. Will you run to Him?

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