(This post was written by Matt Grimes, Middle School Ministry Pastor)

Okay, so it is time for a little confession…I have a problem.  It seems that at my old age of 30, I am having some difficulties navigating the stairs in our house.  I really thought it would be much later in life that I would have this problem.  I have fallen down the stairs 4 times over the past three months.  My wife is actually getting quite worried about me.  I added to the number of falls two nights ago as I was leaving to run to the grocery store for some quick items we needed.  As I rounded the corner to go down the stairs I rolled my ankle pretty badly and fell about halfway down the stairs.  The result of that experience has been an ankle brace and a couple of days of limping around.  It gets really bad when you are trying to preach back to back messages in a youth service with a sprained ankle.  I could not have made it without the help of my ankle brace.

Now I know what you are thinking…what does this story have to do with our kids and helping them to grow in their walk with God?  Well, it has everything to do with it.  You see what got me through the past few days was my ankle brace.  It kept me from injuring my ankle any further.  It helped to keep pressure off an area that was already weak.  Without it, I could have really done some damage to my ankle.  Our kids, and ourselves, need some spiritual ankle braces.  We need people who will come along side of us and help support us and keep us from ending up in situations that can do damage to us.  I want to challenge you to begin to think of a few other trusted adults that you could ask to be spiritual ankle braces for your kids.  These need to be people you can trust, people who will speak God’s truth into your kid’s lives when you don’t have the opportunity to do so.  We all need other people to gather around us and help support us as we walk through the difficulties of life.  So who is your spiritual ankle brace?  Who have you invited in to be that for your kids?  Let me encourage you to not take another step without the spiritual ankle braces we need.