“That’s disgusting!” My wife protested as she inadvertently spit the contents of her mouth into the nearest napkin.
I was upset, hurt, and angry! I had spent a lot of my time, energy, and money to make a cake for my wife—just because. Then I actually tasted the cake and spit it out directly onto the table, missing the plate and napkin altogether.
In my defense, I couldn’t find the cake recipe, so I made it from memory. I was hoping that it would turn out well, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t really know what I was doing. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.
What’s Your Plan?
This is a silly story that illustrates a serious point: you can’t make it successfully through life by just hoping that you’ll make it. The cheesy self-help psychology saying really has a lot of truth to it: “to fail to plan is to plan to fail.” I’ve found this fact to be true, that to be successful in life, you need to have a solid plan. And you need to have already “pre-decided” to make a right decision. If you wait until you get into a bad situation, without first deciding what you’ll do, you’ll likely fail.
A Slippery Slope
In my own experience I’ve noticed that spending time with friends can be an awesome and memorable slippery slope, mountain-top experience—both for positive and negative memories! Let me explain.
During the first week of June I’ve found that this is the one week that sets the standard for how the rest of your summer will usually go. For instance, if you get into trouble because of a poor decision you made while spending time with friends, then it’s likely that you’ll be spending the rest of your summer (and maybe even longer) dealing with some pretty serious consequences.
That’s why it’s critical that you recognize that most decisions happen on a slippery slope and that’s why you need to set your decision hooks firmly in God and His Word, the Bible. Check out the slippery slope described:
“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers” (Psalm 1:1, NLT).
First, the author describes someone not following the advice of the wicked; then, as many times happens, the group works harder to get someone to do wrong with them, but notice the response of the wise person: they don’t stand around or join in with mockers. In other words they shut down any and all avenues and opportunities in order to get into trouble. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken with teens who, after the fact, tell me the honest truth: that they didn’t want to seem uncool or let their friends down, and they got talked into doing something stupid—likely even dangerous, and at times, even criminal! Hopefully this won’t ever be your reality.
Dan, The Man with the Plan!
Thousands of years ago a teenager named Daniel and several of his friends were taken as captives to a foreign country and culture. They would be forced to say, do, dress, and eat certain things that not only were very different from what they were accustomed to but were against the dietary laws that God had given them. Then Daniel learned that there would be people chosen from his group for a special education program; and in that very moment the Bible records that “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way” (Daniel 1:8, NIV). Translation: Daniel didn’t wait to be put into a morally questionable situation; he decided what he would do–in advance. It turned out well for him (see Daniel 1). Dan had a plan. He didn’t wait until the heat was on and he felt the pressure, to make a critical life decision. He knew what he would do before the problem showed up. This is a great example for you, too.
“Summer is for Getting Stupid!”
“WOOOO HOOOOO! Summer is for getting stupid Mr. O!” shouted 16 year old Sheryl, as she jumped into her friend’s convertible. She had just left my office and was headed to a bonfire with several of her friends to celebrate two of her friends’ recent high school graduation. I laughed out loud and reminded her that summer was a wonderful time to let off some steam, but that they all needed to continue to make wise decisions.
I’m not going to lie, I did respond: “hey ya’ll, please make good decisions, cause I don’t want to read about you in the paper…and just remember: Jesus is watching you!” They all laughed, but I was serious!
Summer is a great time to have fun, learn new things, and generally chillax, but I also know that there’s a lot of foolishness that happens during the summer. I don’t want you to have regrets. The only way not to have regrets in your future, or about your past, is to think—I mean really think about your present. Make up your mind now not to do certain things, spend time with certain people, or go to certain places—you know what I’m talking about. Don’t do it! I promise, you’ll be better off for it.
And at the end of the summer, you’ll have great memories instead of huge regrets. Begin the summer with the recipe for sweet success: “God’s way is the best way.”
