The youth are considered tomorrow's leaders. Their development and growth will greatly affect and shape the future, as they will be the ones taking the helm sooner or later. With this, great care should be given to the training and teaching of our youth, especially in the Word of God.

One of these areas the youth of today needs to grow in is the area of family.

Family matters

Many youths today experience a saddening distance from their parents, even their siblings, while they live under one roof. In my area alone, I've seen various youth leaders – active youth leaders in church – spend little to no time with their biological fathers, mothers, and siblings.

While this might be because some of today's youth come from broken families, what makes matters worse is that these youth aren't taking the necessary steps to let God heal and strengthen their families. They would rather spend more time in church bonding with other youth leaders instead of reaching out to their families.

Dear reader, if you are a youth leader, or perhaps are close to becoming a youth leader, I want you to know that you should learn to prioritise your family. God put you there for a reason: to honour Him by doing what He says with regards to your family.

Honouring our families

Dear friend, God tells us to honour our families. Even if God called you to be a pastor, preacher, or someone who will serve Him in full-time ministry, the command never changes. We are to honour our parents. Ephesians 6:1-3 tells us,

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with a promise, '"so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.'"

We are told to honour our parents for the Lord's sake. Sure, there will be times when our families will ask us to do something that may not be in line with the Word of God, and when this happens, we must respectfully and lovingly decline. We must, however, honour our parents just the same by doing what is right for them.

I've seen some youth leaders abandon their families "for ministry," forgetting that our families are our first ministry. Even the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew that He was sent to do God's will at age 12, "went down with [His earthly parents] and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them" (see Luke 2:51, emphasis mine). He didn't show up to do ministry until He was 30 – which meant spending a great deal of time with His family (see Luke 3:23).

Christ honoured His earthly family even while hanging on the cross. Nearing His undeserved death, He entrusted His earthly mother to John, a committed disciple (see John 19:25-27). Such love – He demonstrated to us that family matters to God, who wants us to honour our parents and siblings for His sake.