Fall 2005
Facing Bench

Recognizing Award-Winning Friends Youth Writers

Congratulations to EFC-ER winners in national EFI-NA "Publishers of Truth Essay Contest"

Senior Division: First Place
Just As I Am
Many people have trouble accepting or being accepted by others.Some people I know aren’t accepted by the world because of their faith in God. But other people, especially people my age, have the same problem for different reasons.They go to school and want to be popular or to fit into a certain group, but they know that they never really fit because they’re no longer themselves.They’ve become someone else, someone that God did not create them to be.

It’s difficult not to be accepted by others but, in my life, I struggle with not accepting myself. I know that God created me to be the person that he wanted me to be, but I stumble so often that I’ve become someone completely different from the person he truly wants me to be.I become frustrated and irritated with myself for all the mistakes I make. I’ve been unkind to my brothers, I’ve disobeyed my parents, I’ve lied, and done many, many things I never should have done.

Something that God has shown me over and over again as I continue to grow in my relationship with him is that he will always forgive me.There is no reason for me to feel guilty or to be angry with myself for making a mistake that God has already forgotten about.Being a perfectionist and an over -achiever, I’ve been struggling for a long time to accept God’s forgiveness for my sins. God continues to point out to me that “Love...keeps no records of wrongs.” (1Corinthians 13:5)

Someone once told me that when we sin, we should first ask God’s forgiveness and then we should realize that when God forgives us, we have to forgive ourselves. If we don’t it’s like telling God that our standards are higher than his standards.We, being lowlier than God, cannot possibly have standards as high as his are.This has helped me to not only accept myself, but also to realize that God, in his infinite love and wisdom, made me to be who I am and accepts me, even with all of my faults.

Senior Division: Second Place
Just As I Am
When I was younger, at about the age of nine, I was beginning to become overweight. I had started to gain weight after my mother died when I was eight years old. Many people enjoy eating in order to try to avoid their sadness; I was one of those people.Many kids began to make fun of me for being fat.This of course upset me even more. I was not terribly fat, but I was significantly overweight, and to the children that I went to school with, this was comical. Many times the reason for making fun of someone is that they are not as fortunate as you or else they are different from you.I was different, and being overweight looked funny. At this time, I decided to take out my anger on others who were not as fortunate as me.I began to hang around with kids who liked to make fun of others, and they let me join their group. They did not really care about me or my feelings, but they accepted me. As long as I made jokes about other kids, I fit right in. This went on throughout fifth grade until the following summer, when I went to Friends Youth Camp.

At Camp, the speaker spoke one night about all of the people with whom we were given an opportunity to share God’s love but instead mistreated them. I felt that God, through the speaker, was speaking directly to me. I felt terrible about all of those in whose life I could have made a difference but may have missed my chance. I saw that God loves the people that I tried to hurt and I needed to change.That summer , I also learned something else about God’s love: it is unconditional. God did not care that I was overweight; he will love me no matter what I look like.He was also willing to forgive me for my cruelty. That summer I rededicated my life to Christ, decided to get some real friends who would respect me and others, and I decided to make an effort to love everyone. I also stopped caring so much about what other people thought about me and decided to just be myself, because, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).This verse reminds us that what God thinks about us is the more important than what others think about us.

I never want to be who I was in fifth grade again. I do not believe I will be because I know that God loves me for who I am and will never give up on me.That is a promise I will always remember.

Dusty Jenkins Grade 10 - Dublin, Ohio, Water of Life Evangelical Friends

Junior Division: First Place
God Loves Me Like Nothing Else
When I think about how great God is, how wonderful, how good, how almighty and powerful He is, I am amazed. He knows everything, He sees everything, He hears everything. And God loves me just as I am!!!

You can do what you think is the worst and most wrong thing anyone has ever done, and try to get away with it.When you think you have...you haven’t. HE knows!Y ou got away with nothing. You know you’re not worthy of being forgiven. He knows it too, but you ask Him anyway.What He says shocks you! He says, “I FORGIVE YOU!!!”

That’s how God is. He forgives you no matter if it’s something you think is a really big sin, like robbing the World National Bank, or something that seems as small as watching TV when your parents say no! No matter how big or how small the wrong thing seems to be...He will forgive you if you come to Him with a sincere heart. 1 John 1:10 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

He’s the same way with acceptance too!! I remember a while back when I didn’t feel like anyone liked me, or accepted me because of how goofy I acted. Because of that I wanted to try to change how I acted just so that they would like me.I thought that after I did that they might like me more. But I realized that I wouldn’t have liked myself anymore. And I remembered that God accepts me just how I am!!!And since the heart of acceptance is love, and since I love him too, any changes I make should be in order to become more like him, not to try and get others to like me.

God doesn’t care what you look like, or how “bad” you have been!He loves you and accepts you just the way you are! All you have to do is ask Him with a sincere heart! It’s as simple as that! No questions asked!