One day as I was scrolling through my Bible app, searching through the "Verse of the Days", I stumbled upon a verse in Ecclesiastes and as I continued reading, I struck gold.

Ecclesiastes 11: 9 says, " Young people, it is wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do."

This intrigued me because, contrary to popular, wordly, belief, God wants us to have fun and enjoy life. A lot of young people hold the mindset that serving God equals not having a life or not having fun, but serving Him has been one of the best experiences of my life. This verse is telling us not to waste our youth. To go out and do all that we want to do and be, but in a godly manner, of course. The problem is not that God doesn't want us to have fun, it's that we want to have the "type" of fun that is not pleasing to God.

Verse 12 goes on to say, "Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator."

It's fun to be young and it's normal to want to experience life the way the world tells us we should when we're young but that can be problematic if you are pursuing a relationship with Christ. He wants us to serve Him with our whole lives. With everything we've got, this doesn't exclude our social lives. He expects these things of us, not to hinder or oppress us, but to protect us. He wants to protect us from the stupid things we are liable to do when we're young. Whether it is underage or excessive drinking, doing drugs, premarital sex, overeating, or being lazy; there is a reason a reason He wants to lead us away from those things. In my opinion, the things of the world, that society tries to tell us are great and fun are what tend to be a hindrance and oppressive. Being addicted to alcohol and drugs is oppressive, contracting STI's and having soul ties is oppressive, not being motivated or being gluttonous are oppressive. All of these conditions decrease our quality of life.

The Bible is so cool. It serves as a love letter opposed to a rule book. It even has some pretty amazing stories in there, if we'd care to open it up. Most importantly, through it, God speaks to us. One thing I'd like to make clear is that we all, fall short of God's glory. But how blessed are we, that He loves us unconditionally anyway? Through our poor decisions and mistakes, He is with us and He loves us. There is nothing that we could to that could ever separate us from His unfailing love and that is all thanks to Jesus who died on the cross for our sins.

I just want to encourage young people and let them know that it is absolutely possible to love God in your youth and to live a life that is pleasing to him!