Youth is the most foundation season of life, for in these years, young people make choices that set a trajectory for years to come. Indeed, once youth is gone, there’s no getting it back–only one haunting question, “Did I make the most of it?”

I remember when I was a boy in the single digits. Then, the time when I’d become a father and husband seemed as distant as eternity. Yet today, it’s arrived. And for good or ill, I’m reaping today what I sowed back then.

I understand what it’s like to find role models to imitate. Today’s youth are screaming for role models. Sadly, they often find heroes whose examples bring anything but lasting fulfillment.

For those brave youth willing to swim against the current, there stands one perfect role model–Christ. Though the scripture leaves little record of His youth, the few words it contains provide a clear path for the intentional young person.

The Youth of Christ

The gospels tell us much about the public ministry of Christ yet very little about His early years. In fact, Luke is the only gospel to record anything between Christ’s birth and the beginning of His public ministry.

However, that little sliver provides huge lessons. Here are three ways you can follow Christ’s example.

1. Be Content

Likely, Christ spent most of his early years learning, living in a family, and toiling with Joseph in the carpenter shop. Why did Christ wait until 30 to launch His ministry? Could one reason be that God wanted us to see an example of preparation?

In the words of JR Miller, “Nor must you imagine that if God made you for some definite place and work, he will lift you into your place, and put the work into your hands in some supernatural way. God never did that for anybody. Even Jesus spent thirty years in diligent study and hard work, in preparation for the three years of wonderful ministry for which he was specially sent into the world. Whatever fine or distinguished thing you may have been born to do — you must be trained for it in the common days and in the common ways.”

It takes time for God the potter to fashion us the clay into perfection for His work. Will you allow God to take as much time as He needs to shape you?

2. Be Faithful

You may dream of doing big things for God, but how faithful are you in the little things He has tasked you with today? Right now, God is testing you to determine how much He can entrust you with in the future.

In each area of life, you’re sowing a harvest that will be reaped in later years (Galatians 6:7, Hosea 10:12). Are you faithful in….

• Walking with God
• Loving your family
• Stewarding your finances
• Using your body as God’s temple
• Cultivating your mind
• Redeeming the time
• Sharing the gospel
• Encouraging other believers

If you can be faithful in the little things that God has set in front of you (which, in fact are big things), you can faithfully do whatever “great” thing God has for you in the future.

3. Be Honoring

Luke 2:51 says, “And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them…”

Why did Christ submit to His earthly parents? After all, if any child could ever claim to be wiser than his parents, it was Christ.

Life is filled with authorities. Those who cannot subject themselves to authorities cannot do so to God. If the perfect Son of God submitted himself to his parents, should not we?

4. Be Preparing

Recently a friend of mine remarked, “Greatness is in the preparation, not in the performance.” In other words, the process is more important than the end result. Any accomplishment is only the result of hard work, discipline, and intentionality.

Consider that Christ spent 90% of His time on earth in His “private ministry,” in preparation for His public ministry. In that prepatory period, Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

What are you preparing for? How are you preparing?

Start Where You Are

When he came to Christ in his mid-twenties, William Wilberforce lamented how he had wasted his his youth pursuing fleeting pleasures. So he resolved, “To endeavor from this moment to amend my plan for time. I hope to live heretofore for God’s glory and my fellow creatures’ good.”

His prayer was answered. God did use Wilberforce in a mighty way, as this remarkable young man led the campaign that successfully abolished slavery and the slave trade in Great Britain.

You can’t change yesterday. But, like Wilberforce, you can resolve today to live every moment for the glory of God. As you commit to serve Him, it may seem that no-one notices. God does.

Question: What are the most important foundations to lay in one’s youth?