TO PARTY . . . OR PREPARE?

The following is a message I gave to my son's Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting when he was in tenth grade, Vancleave, MS:

CHOICES...To Party or Prepare?
Some of you may be thinking, "Hey, my whole life is ahead of me. There's plenty of time to play the catch up game after I have a little fun."

Yes, that may be possible, but the further behind you fall, the harder it is to undo already set attitudes and habits. Once you've fallen into that trap of always putting it off 'til later, the more you deceive yourself.

Putting forth the little extra effort it takes to do well, makes your goals far more attainable now than trying to play catch up later in life. If you don't let yourself keep ahead of the game, then your circumstances can overwhelm you and eventually overtake you yielding an attitude of, "There's no way I'll ever get out of this one so why even try?" . . . then you give up instead of catch up!

There will always be a time of having fun and enjoying yourself but it should never be at the expense of effecting your future. I'm sure you can paint your own picture with the following key words:
           Ds and Fs = failure
           Drugs = addiction
           Drinking = alcoholism
           Smoking = lung and/or mouth cancer
           Sex = pregnancy or abortion or AIDS

Why hope to play catch up from these when you are already ahead of the game now?

To Party

or Prepare?

It's 

Your

Choice