On Wednesday Nights I teach a 5th and 6th grade girls class at church that we call God's Girls. We try to use this time to help these girls in their committment so that they can withstand the temptations in middleschool or junior high. I usually struggle with the balance of making this class fun, but trying to instill deep spiritual truths into their hearts. There are so many things I wish I would have known when I was their age. Yet, the reality is it has taken me many years to get to where I am, so how are they suppose to get it at such a young age? For a few weeks I have been reading them some stories of Christian Martyrs from Jesus Freaks as we have been talking about counting the cost of being a disciple of Christ. Tonight a light bulb went on in one of their heads and she said "you mean these are true stories?". Guess they had just thought they were fictional stories. Anyway...tonight's lesson centered around one of my least favorite verses in the Bible Revelation 3:15-16 "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." The thought of me making Jesus sick because I am not pleasing Him is really hard to take. Yet, I am thankful that because of His sacrifice on the cross, His grace covers me and I am not judged by my works. Kind of hard to understand, but the point I wanted to make to the girls tonight is that Jesus would rather us not enter the game at all, than to enter the game and sit on the sidelines. We must count the cost and be willing to do our best to please Him. We are His representatives and He lives through us. Like I said, this is hard enough for me to comprehend, how do I explain it to these sweet girls? Fortunately, all I have to do is plant the seed and let the Holy Spirit take over in intrepreting it to them. One of the great blessings of teaching!!