YOUTHS-TRAIN YOUR PERCEPTIVE POWERS!

Discernment in Planning Your Education

The Bible says that it is wise to plan for the future.  (Proverbs 21:5)  have  you and your parents discussed your future?  Perhaps you plan to enter the full-time ministry as a pioneer.  Really, no career choice could bring greater satisfaction.  If  you are cultivating good study habits and developing skills in the ministry, you are preparing for this exciting career.  Have  you thought about how you will support yourself in the ministry?  If, in the future, you choose to raise a family, will you be able to care for that added responsibility?  making balanced, realistic decisions about such things requires the use of perceptive powers.

In some places it is still possible to get on-the -job training in a useful skill or profession.  There are youths who learn the family business or receive training from adult friends who have businesses.  Other take courses at school that will be useful in earning a living later.  Where such opportunities are not available, after careful thought parents may arrange for their children to receive some supplementary education after high school.  Planning ahead in this way so as to care for adult responsibilities and especially so as to be able to share in the pioneer service over the long term is not compatible with putting God's Kingdom first.  (Matthew 6:33) And supplementary education does not  rule out pioneering.  One  young  Witness, for example, had wanted to pioneer for a long time.  After she finished high school, her parents - regular pioneers themselves - arranged for her to have some supplementary education.  She was able to pioneer while she received her schooling, and now she has a  skill with which she supports herself as she continues pioneering.

In the matter of supplementary education, each family has the right and responsibility to make its own decision.  When such education is chosen, it can be helpful.  It can, though, be a trap.  If you are considering such education,  what is your goal?  Is it to  prepare yourself to handle adult responsibilities in an honorable way?  Or are you "seeking great things for  yourself"?  (Jeremiah 45:5; 2 Thessalonians 3
:10; 1 Timothy 5:8; 6:9)  What about pursuing supplementary education away from home, perhaps living on a campus?  Would that be  wise in view of Paul's warning that "bad associations spoil useful habits"?   (1 Corinthians 15:33; 2 Timothy 2:22)  Remember, too, that  "the time left is reduced."  (1 Corinthians 7:29)  How much time will you devote to such education?  Will it consume the bulk  of your youthful years?  If so, how will you apply the Bible's encouragement to "remember, now, your Grand Creator in the days of your young manhood"?  (Ecclesiastes 12:1) Further, will the courses  you take allow time for such vital Christian activities as meeting attendance, field service and personal study?  (Matthew 24:14; Hebrews 10:24, 25) If your perceptive powers are keen, you will never lose sight of spiritual goals as you and your parents  plan for your future.

Next time: Keeping Courtship Honorable

Watchtower, 1999