the Fourth Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
Nothing more satisfying than spending the afternoon on the water with some of your friends and the kids. Ah yes, tooling around the fluid surface in a powerful craft. Watching the other boats as they make their way around the broad expanse of water. Love it. Absolutely love it. However, not everybody gets to do that. So, Sunday afternoon I had to settle for a little two person paddle boat on a dammed up creek and share our little corner of waterworld with three other craft, also two person paddle boats.
The venue for this aquatic experience was the creek at the Blue Grass Christian Camp near Lexington, Kentucky. The event was a Sunday afternoon church picnic/let's-show-the-kids-the-camp-time. Five of our young people were along for the day and enjoyed touring the camp and seeing where some of them might be able to attend this summer. They were taken through the dorms and extra cabins on the camp side as well as shown the recreational facilities they would use if they attended camp.
Then everybody went over to the Retreat Center portion of the camp which is located just over the Fayette County (Lexington area) line in Clark County. There we toured the Retreat Center and examined one of the rooms at the adjacent lodge facility. Then it was a short hop across the parking lot to the out camp locale with its straight up cabins with no electricity. Before returning to the camp side of the property everyone took a long hard look at the high ropes course and were glad that none of us were going to be involved in that.
The kids that were seeing all this were kids who have little or no church background. For the most part, what they know of the Word of God is what they have been taught as a part of our students ministry at Minorsville. Now they have another world that will be hopefully opened to them this summer; the world of fellowship with other children much like them. The camp forms the backdrop of recreation and relaxation while the camp personnel apply the necessary instruction which forms the bond of faith for those young people.
My question is this. Have you gotten so far in your faith that you have forgotten the world of wonder that young people inhabit? I hope not. I am soon to be 56 years old. I spent forty-five minutes in a paddle boat with an eleven year old that I am hoping to bring to Christ. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 Last time I looked long and hard at that verse I saw nothing that leads me to think that verse was intended just for parents. My kids are all grown and gone. My new kids are just beginning to learn. How about you? Got any new kids on the horizon? I hope so.
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' Copyright 2010 © Tom Kelley. 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with their complete bio and a link to https://www.studylight.org/ 2) 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
