Dear God, we are going to try this again tonight. Last week, the flooding in South Texas prevented us from having the graduation for the men in this Christian Men’s Life Skills Class, so we are doing it one week later. I hope all of the men and their families can come.

And I have the opportunity to speak to them. I’ve prayed through what to say before, and I have a lot of ideas. Here they are in raw form:

• I need to start with a story. I need an entry point for them. I’ll come back to this.
• I want to integrate the organization’s foundational verse, Proverbs 27:17 – As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. I think this is important. You saw early on, before the fall, that it was not good for humans to be alone. We need someone. Adam needed Eve, and Eve needed Adam. And they both needed you. We need positive peer pressure. We need influence. That makes me think about the Fellowship of Christian Athletes picture called “Influence.” I have a copy of it hanging on my office wall.

• I want to talk about the influence our friends have on us. How I’ve heard it said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
• One of the teachers who has been through the program suggested I really stress the importance of participating in the weekly alumni program and encouraging the families to positively reinforce the good changes they see in their husbands/boyfriends/fathers/sons.
• And I want to lean into the parable of the wheat at the tares from Matthew 13. I spoke about this the other night at the alumni meeting. Jesus made a point that it would not be good to rip up the weeds because some of the good wheat would get ripped up too. No, wait until the harvest, take it all up together, and then sort it out. All of us, including me, were spared a good weed-pulling. You spared us and gave us a chance to change. We’ve been through pain. It’s time for us to make the pain count.

Father, given what I just typed above, I think a rough outline will be:

• Opening story. I have some thoughts, but I still need a good one.
• I think I want to do the parable of the wheat and the tares next.
• Then I want to do “we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.”
• Then the iron sharpens iron verse.
• Then encouragement to not let this pain be wasted. Make it count.
  • Make it count for all of us to grow.
  • Get involved in alumni.
  • Encourage your loved one who completed the course.
  • Maybe learn from the material he learned from.
• Finally, this was Christian Men’s Life Skills. All of the teachers and leaders did this because, ultimately, we want the men and their families to know the Jesus/God we know.
  • Love your enemies.
  • Serve the poor.
  • Die to yourself.
  • Find the narrow path.
• With that said, tonight is everyone’s chance to commit themselves to Jesus and then spend the rest of your earthly life in relationship with you and becoming more and more like you.
• Close with prayer.

Father, please help me tonight. Help me decrease as you increase. Prepare the hearts, minds, and souls of everyone in the room. Help the two men who have been arrested for previous crimes in the past two weeks.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen