By: Megan Kuka | Parent Life Staff
With fall weather taking over the Denver area, many people are reminded of many different things. Football season. Cooler weather. The Holidays. However, the most important and subtly life changing aspect of this season is the returning of kids to school. Our girls know all too well the added stresses that grow when school starts. For our teen moms, it is another iteration of dividing their time between raising their children and doing their best in school and for their future. Young parents have the stresses of school, raising their babies, work, decisions on future career goals, safety, relationships, and many others we do not have time to name. Often, these parents are dealing with these stresses alone. This is why I thank God for ice cream shops!
Ice cream shops are the perfect places to walk alongside these moms as they tackle stresses every day. An ice cream shop represents a safe place that is always fun for both the mom and her child. With a simple cone of cookie dough ice cream, we can give our young people a way to share their story. This is how we can walk with them on their journey, by giving them a chance to step away from the stress and enjoy the simplest and purest form of pleasure: frozen sugar!
I ask for prayers today for God to help these conversations happen with these teens. With God’s guidance and grace, we can continue to offer these mini escapes form the daily pressures these mothers experience. I pray that God can guide these conversations to the best way we can help our young people.
Can you also pray that these ice cream shops stay open and available to us? Not just because I love ice cream, but also because of what these places represent. They are an escape for our young people to step out of the daily grind and just enjoy a simple ice cream cone. These experiences are what allow us as ministry leaders to truly meet our young people. I pray that God leads us in these conversations so that we can provide adequate comfort and care to each of our young parents, whether they are lost at the moment or going strong and need positive reinforcement.
Ice cream shops. They are the key to the connection we can make between our young people and God. They are an escape from the daily stresses that burden all of us. And, most of all, they are delicious.
Thank you for being a part of the ongoing conversation with youth in our city and helping us share God’s story. It’s our honor to be the storytellers on your behalf who meet kids right where they are and give life to their story.
Providing young people in our community with the opportunity to make an informed decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ and become part of a local church.