Only Seventeen

Have you ever been discredited because of your age?  "You're too young."  "Maybe when you're older."  Honestly, every time somebody puts me down because of my age, I want to take my Bible and beat them over the head with it.  ...And then I ponder this thought and realize that it might go against the whole, "I'm mature," idea, and probably against the Christ-follower persona as well.

I like to quote the verse Jeremiah 1:7, where the Lord says, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.'  You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you."

You can be eight years old and have a specific purpose for your life that is meant to happen right now.  Think about children who have made a difference.  Did you know that Mozart was composing music at five years old?  Fifteen year old Tara Lipinksi became the youngest person to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.  And who could forget Mattie Stepanek who raised awareness for muscular dystrophy and published six books of poetry before his death at age thirteen?  There are so many young people who have made a difference in the world.  You do not have to be thirty, forty, fifty years old to do something worthwhile with your life.  You can start right now, at whatever age you are.

I have always had big hopes and dreams.  Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted to do things that most people wouldn't even consider.  I have memories of when I was eight or nine years old.  "What do you want to be when you grow up?" a beaming adult would ask me.  I would grin right back at them and reply, "An international journalist."  How's that for a startling answer from an elementary-aged child? 

Could you believe that somebody has said to me before, "I know you want to do all of these things, Emily, but wait until you get a good skill... wait until after you graduate college, and then you can do what God wants you to do."  People have told me that as a seventeen year old girl, my brain hasn't developed enough for me to realize what God's plan is for me.  People have told me that I can't actually know God's purpose for me until I'm out of my twenties.  This is what the enemy is putting into our minds. 

I don't want to be put in a box labeled, "Useless until college graduation."  I want to be considered a child of Christ with a purpose already set in motion for my life, starting now, even if it means for me to do something almost incomprehensible if you aren't looking through God's eyes.

1 Timothy 4:12 says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity."

Jesus has a plan for me.  I can already taste it.  I can already feel Him touching my heart.  However, I feel hindered by false assumptions.  When people look at me, I fear that all they see is a seventeen year old junior in high school instead of the potential that I have as an instrument of the Lord.  "Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." (Philippians 4:13, The Message)

I encourage you to erase all judgment from your mind and focus instead on having blind faith.  Nowhere in the Bible does God encourage you to wait until you are "old enough" to change the world.  No, in many instances, He purposely used young people to fulfill His plan, people like Samuel and King David and Esther and Timothy. 

The Lord uses the young to change the hearts of the old.

If you're young and eager like I am, then keep up the good faith.  Let no one's false prejudice keep you from following God's plan.  He does have a purpose for you, and it's never too early to begin fulfilling His call.