Caring About Your Students

1 John 4:10-12
"This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us." 


This may seem like a strange question but do you really care about your students? 
How do you express your love for them? 
This passage teaches us three things about caring for and loving our students:

1. The source of love is God. He is love and showed His love by sending Jesus to die for our sin.

1. Without a relationship with God through Jesus it is impossible to love others in the truest sense.

1. The love of God reaches full expression when we love others.

If your "loving students meter" is a little on the low side, first take a look at your relationship with God. You won't be able to love students the way you need to unless your relationship with Christ is in order. 
Next, you have to put love into action. Encourage your students, minister to the needs of your students, and serve them from a heart full of appreciation for God's first loving you. The simplest yet most powerful thing a youth minister can do is to show God's love to students.
As you consider how to demonstrate your care for your students, start with God's love for us, and His command to love others. Let your love flow out of Christ's love for you.
My prayer for you: I pray today that you would be moved, anew, by God's love for you. And out of this, you would seek to show Christ's love to others, especially the students in your community.