My Experience as Youth Pastor

I loved GI Joe almost as much as Transformers when I was a kid. They did a remake of the show and I watched it. Quite frankly I was more than a little disappointed. The show itself wasn't terrible but they really dropped the ball at the end. Back in the 80s they finished each show out with very important information where the characters from the show taught kids like me how to deal with stuff and stay safe.

This seems like something they really should have kept because the lessons they taught are still important. Like the video above says, don't hide in the fridge. Sure kids now might now spend as much time playing out by themselves. When I was growing up pretty much the whole neighborhood went out shortly after school and played till dinner and if it was light still we'd go play till dark. I guess if you just sit in front of the TV or computer then you don't need to worry about the messages they share on the show, but there are other important messages they could have shared with kids today. They need to know to get off their butts and go play for one. They need to be told how to eat right and to not share personal information online.

Of course, just like they say in every episode, "knowing is half the battle." The other half is actually doing or not doing. They said in one episode not to fly kites around power lines, but I'm sure some kids saw this and didn't really pay attention. This is something I learned from the show. I know a lot of things, probably too many things for my own good. I know how to make thermite, for example. If you don't know what that is I'm not gonna help you because it really isn't something your average person should know. Knowing these things is only half the battle though. I think wisdom is the other half the battle.

I know how to make various things that burn and or explode but wisdom tells me not to try those things out or to tell the Youth how to create these concoctions. OK wisdom and my wife tell me that, but you get the picture. Wisdom tells us when to act and how to act something knowledge by itself can't help us with. Knowledge taught us how to make nuclear bombs, fortunately wisdom showed us that we needed to be more responsible with them.

And now you know …