{"id":62063,"date":"2023-07-29T09:04:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T14:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=62063"},"modified":"2023-07-29T09:04:20","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T14:04:20","slug":"what-one-teenager-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-one-teenager-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What One Teenager Can Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Dick Blackford<\/p>\n<p>The article below was written about 17-year-old Tim Wadlington. Tim died of cancer on Sept. 8, 1989, and I attended his funeral on the 12th at Eddysville, Kentucky. The church at Suwanne, where Tim worshipped, has a bulletin that is published solely by the teenagers, called <em>The River of Life<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I knew Tim from summer camp and he had preached for me in Owensboro on one occasion. I had known the Wadlington family for over 20 years. During the past three months, the Suwanee congregation has had 12 baptisms &#8211; people with whom Tim had studied. Satan gained nothing by Tim&#8217;s death. Four of those obeyed the gospel the night before the funeral while Tim&#8217;s body was at the funeral home. His influence was also felt in the Bartlett, Tennessee church where 10 baptisms occurred recently. The Wadlington family worshipped there while Tim was receiving treatment at St. Jude&#8217;s Children&#8217;s Hospital. He also left a list of people he had talked to or was planning to contact.<\/p>\n<p>Tim was a bright boy. He was an honor graduate, Beta Club president, and a member of Who&#8217;s Who Among American High School Students. His plans to attend Florida College that fall were prevented by cancer. But his first love was the Lord, and he was a great example for young and old. He did more in 17 years than many of us do in 70. &#8220;<em>And he being dead, yet speaketh<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 11:14).<\/p>\n<p>Tim will be missed by his loved ones and in the ranks of gospel preachers. As I reflect on lessons learned from Tim, I think of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A teenager can be a faithful, active Christian in his world of sin and corruption. He did not use his youth as an excuse.<\/li>\n<li>It is not how long you live but what you do with your life that matters.<\/li>\n<li>Instead of giving in to peer pressure, sometimes we have to go against the flow. And we can, both young and old.<\/li>\n<li>Instead of withdrawing from society and feeling sorry for himself, he placed greater value on others.<\/li>\n<li>In a sense, we are all terminal, and we need to realize the urgency of preaching the gospel now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Visitors to the Kentucky Lake-Berkley Lake area would benefit by worshipping with the small congregation at Suwanee.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, what about your prospect list?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dick Blackford The article below was written about 17-year-old Tim Wadlington. Tim died of cancer on Sept. 8, 1989, and I attended his funeral on the 12th at Eddysville, Kentucky. The church at Suwanne, where Tim worshipped, has a bulletin that is published solely by the teenagers, called The River of Life. I knew&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[451,395,309],"class_list":["post-62063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-teaching","tag-teenagers","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2496,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-family-doesnt-want-the-brethren-involved-in-a-sisters-funeral-what-should-we-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":62063,"position":0},"title":"The family doesn&#8217;t want the brethren involved in a sister&#8217;s funeral. What should we do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, We had a sister in Christ who passed on.\u00a0 She was the mother and the only faithful Christian in her family. Her eldest son has strayed away from his promise to God. We tried to win him back but with no success. Now that his mother has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55694,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/conversions-from-a-funeral-sermon\/","url_meta":{"origin":62063,"position":1},"title":"Conversions from a Funeral Sermon","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Etim Abidiak via\u00a0For a Better Understanding, Vol. 50, No. 5, September \/ October 2012 Four weeks ago, I preached at the funeral of a late brother who served the Nigeria Police and was of the rank of Inspector. His name was Mbre Jack. His funeral was attended by many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22078,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-handle-attending-a-funeral-where-the-practices-are-unscriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":62063,"position":2},"title":"How do you handle attending a funeral where the practices are unscriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This past weekend I attended my grandmother's funeral, but I have a question. My family is very unscriptural in most of their\u00a0ways, but while I was there they had a woman preach or eulogize the funeral I am wondering if I am in sin by attending it and staying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57894,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lesson-from-a-funeral\/","url_meta":{"origin":62063,"position":3},"title":"Lesson from a Funeral","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Harry R. Osborne via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0XXXVIII: 21, p. 10, November 3, 1994 Have you been to a funeral lately? None of us enjoys funerals, but the reflection demanded by such occasions is good for us. The Bible speaks of the need to learn the lessons that are taught by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/Funeral-300x228.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":95312,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hard-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":62063,"position":4},"title":"Hard Thinking","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by J. Watson My Dad was a preacher. He was a good man, a kind man, a strong man, a people person, a completely God-focused man. Lately, I've been going through times when I wish I had his strength and wisdom to rely on. As I've been thinking a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45591,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-lunch-lady\/","url_meta":{"origin":62063,"position":5},"title":"The Lunch Lady","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford One of the best-attended funerals I've ever preached was for a school lunch lady. Her name was Marlene Norris. She was a faithful member of the church in Joliet, with which I was working at the time, along with her husband and three of her children.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/school-lunch-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}