January 3: Put God FIRST!

For the first week of January, I used this idea to remind my students to put God first in the new year.

What is a New Year's Resolution? (a goal you give yourself, something to do or not do in the new year, a change you make at the beginning of the year)

What are some New Year's Resolutions that people make? (getting healthy, giving up soda, losing weight, getting organized)

Since we're human, we're always going to make mistakes and we will always need a Savior. As Christians, though, we recognize that it's our job to make better choices and constantly grow and learn.

Our Bible story today comes from Luke, chapter 18. A rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked Him how to get into heaven. The man said he followed the 10 commandments, he was a good person, so what else did he need to do!?!? Jesus told Him to give away all of his possessions and then He would be ready.

The man was disappointed. He really loved his stuff and didn't want to get rid of anything He owned to follow Jesus.

Does Jesus want us to sell all of our belongings to follow him? Probably not. After all, if we gave up our houses, where would we live? If your parents gave away their cars, how would they get to work? If you gave away your clothes, what would you wear to school? Jesus was not saying that it's not okay to own stuff. He was telling the rich man that he needed to put God before his stuff. It was okay to love his pets, but he must love God more.

The Bible tells us the man left disappointed, and we don't know if he ever put God first or not. I hope he did. I hope he realized that putting God before everything else is the best way to live.

A great New Year's Resolution to make is to put God first. If you put God before everything else, then God promises us that everything else will fall into place. Will our lives be perfect? No, but with God at the front we will be able to overcome difficulties in our lives much easier, and we'll be able to make better decisions, too.

To help us remember to put God first, hand out a half-sheet of paper (cut the long-way) to each person. This is our giant #1. Make a list of things that you love, but remember, who should be first? {That's right, God!} After you have 4-5 items on your list of things you love, you can decorate the rest of your 1 to remind you that even though we love our pets, we love our video games, and we love our parents, we love God most of all. After all, Jesus is the one who died for our sins. He is our Savior and through Him we'll live forever in eternity.