Remember the youth, they are the future of our God’s kingdom. Remember your own youth, so you can be patient, understanding, and strong with the students of today. Be the adult today you wish you’d had in your life back then, but knowing what you know today. Be the support that holds up the bridges they need to cross you may not have been able to yourself. Don’t discourage them or provoke them to anger, but gently and with the authority of experience and the authority God gave you guide them down the right paths. Remember the dead ends you took, and rescue them from it. You may not snatch them from the fire, but you can comfort them on the other side with a glass of water and an embrace.
You may not be a pastor, but you are a shepherd nonetheless planting and watering seeds. But don’t become conceited, for “It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.”
1 Corinthians 3:7 NLT