Driving 30 miles in a car with no air conditioning yesterday got the better of me and I had to stop at a McDonald’s en-route for a McFlurry. All McDonald’s are air-conditioned and the truth is it doesn’t take much for me to stop for a McDonald’s McFlurry, anyway. But I don’t like ordering from the big white screen. So I asked the lad standing quietly next to it if he would do it and he did.
He was wearing the McDonald’s uniform and I asked if he was a student earning some extra money. He said no, it was his job after leaving school, adding that school had not done him any good. It had been a waste of time. That’s a shame, I said, asking if there was anything he liked at school. No, nothing at all. Did he have any hobbies or skills not connected with school that could lead to a job he would like? Another no, not really.
He is just 17, an age when some are really focused on what they want to do but when many are feeling their way with little sense of direction. I believe it’s because their worth hasn’t been affirmed and their gifts acknowledged and encouraged. I told him that he does have gifts and skills, even if he doesn’t think he has, because it says so in the Bible. It says that God has equipped us with all we need to do the work that is planned for us before we are even born. Ephesians 2:10. That all the days of our lives are written in God’s book before there is even one of them, that God knows him and will reach him, and to listen out for Him.
There wasn’t time for more talk because his lunch-tray arrived and he turned to find a table. But as he turned he said, ‘thanks for talking to me.’
I didn’t ask his name so I’m calling him Dai. (This is Wales.) There are no coincidences in God’s economy and we know that He loves and values Dai.
Mostly I write about older people and often asked for prayer for them. But this time I’m asking older people to pray for today’s young ones, like Dai.
It doesn’t need to be eloquent: simply, ‘Father God, please reach young people like Dai who seem to have no sense of self or direction, and show them that You love them and have a plan for their lives.’
This song sums it up well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcmqSfr1ENY
Let’s do it! (1 Thessalonians 5, 15,16.)
Best blog I have read of yours. Be brave old folk young people like it when you take an interest they want to chat……