The Idol of Idleness

It’s hard to believe that summer is already upon us. School is out, and now more than ever, students have more free time than they’ll ever know what to do with. With excess amounts

of free time come the seemingly endless opportunities to make poor decisions. So, how do we navigate free time when there seems to be an unending amount of it during the summer.

First, I want you to know that PRACTICING THE PAUSE, AND SAVORING THE MOMENTS OF FREEDOM YOU HAVE IS NOT A BAD THING. I want to point out, however, the danger that lies in excessive amounts of free time. The moments when we should be doing something, but avoid our responsibility to “rest” in a moment of nothingness. It’s for this reason, I want to walk through some ways to help address the idol of idleness. Now, it would be easy to just overload your time with all kinds of activities or chores, but I don’t want you to just blindly fill out the calendar. Be strategic in your time with your teen this summer.

The things we do, the time we spend, and love we share, will be far reaching in the memories of the teens we have influence over.

So, what does it look like to invest in the life of your teen over the summer? How do we make sure we don’t waste the opportunity afforded to us? I think it starts with intentional investment. Many parents spend a lot of time during the school year studying, teaching, or helping their students navigate the never-ending piles of homework. Your schedule already reflects that time together. So, what if we reframed that time to be focused on studying scripture.

YouVersion does a great job with topical scripture reading plans. You choose one, and it gives you the verses, and followup questions. What if we spent more time in scripture, and less time on Netflix? What if we spent time investing in their eternity?

What would happen if we showed our students that service is more important than self-satisfaction? I’d be willing to bet that we’d see a generation that was focused on the future. Not just for the sake of self-preservation, but for the sake of those around them. I’d bet that our schools would see life change from a generation dedicated to making the unseen seen. I’d bet, that in our “teaching,” we might just learn something.

Let’s kill the idol of idle-ness and replace it with investment.

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Kyle Salpietra | High School Minister