Have you ever played a video game that you were good at – and messed up?  I’m sure you just pushed the restart button.  Why?  It’s because you know that you’re better than that. In fact, most days you can play that game for hours before you mess up – so you push the button and start over.

Living the Christian life around friends, at school, and at work is not an easy task – especially for teenagers.  The Bible says we all have sinned and “come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)  We’d be lying to say that we’re perfect!  “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  (1 John 1:8)

As a Christian, I sometimes stumble.  We all do things we shouldn’t do.  We don’t do things that we should.  We say things we didn’t want to say.  We go where we should not have gone.  We’re not alone – the Apostle Paul struggled with the same things – just like you and me (read Romans 7:15-25).

If you are a child of God, He allows you to push the restart button.  Actually, He’s the one who pushes it for us!  The Bible tells us that “if we confess our sins” that God is “faithful and just to forgive” and to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9) And if you don’t know if you’re God’s child, please turn to pg. 11 for more information!

Now that’s cool… you can have a new game.  You can start over.  Don’t let what you’ve done (or not done) in the past stop you from pushing restart.  Game on!

Article by Kevin Winchenbach,  Youth Minister
at Lighthouse Baptist Church, Taylorsville