I’m a 27-year old college student in a class full of 18-year old kids who have no idea what life looks like yet. I used to be one of them. Today I found myself filled with aggravation, compassion, frustration, and mercy.
Before class started there were the usual, “What did you do this weekend” conversations. Two beautiful teenagers sat next to me discussing just how drunk they had gotten the weekend before. They reminisced of their Jack and Coke and Jose Cuervo moments. They laughed and gossiped about how ugly girls were hitting on their boyfriends. 
At first judgment filled my mind as I started to shake my head at them. Then compassion took over. I used to be there. I found myself praying for them as the professor made her way to the front of the classroom.
I wanted to grab a hold of them and shake them until sense filled them up. I wanted desperately to play the tape of my last 27 years of life so they could see what mistakes they could avoid. I wanted to protect them from drunken nights of “praying to the porcelain god”. I wanted to protect them from being taken advantage of by older men that would fill their minds with false hope in order to have some fun. I wanted to protect them from quitting college after one year because they were too afraid of success to finish. I wanted to protect them from the future heartache I saw playing out in the stories they think are funny now. Oh, if only they could see!
I can’t keep them from that. I can’t protect them. But I can pray.
Join me in this prayer of gratitude for all the works God has done in our lives. Thank you Lord for redemption. Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you that you love me with a never-ending love. Thank you for truth. Thank you for trials. Thank you for tests. Thank you for grace and mercy. Never let me forget what you have done for me. Never let me forget the pit I fell into that you had to pull me out of. Thank you for reminding me that you will never leave me or forsake me. Thank You.
Shake Them Every Way But Loose