How can we equip our students to truly want the Word? Wouldn’t it be great if that was the first place they turned in times of trouble? Wouldn’t it be awesome if in a moment of crisis a verse would pop into their heads or they’d have a yearning to go spend some time with the Lord? How can we encourage this to happen? We need to be in the Word ourselves, unapologetically include Scripture in our programmed teaching, know our story and include Scripture in our personal contacts. Obviously, we need to be in the Word ourselves.

I took my son to the Real Pirates exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota a few days ago. Neither I nor he is a big museum person normally, but he loved pirates as a kid; and I thought it’d be a fun thing to do with him before we went out to lunch. So we went in and learned we couldn’t get enough. Did you know pirates didn’t really walk the gang plank? They’d just throw rogues overboard.

Later that night, my husband and I met another couple for dinner. We enjoyed great food and had a great time, and…I found that I was ridiculously fixated on talking about pirates. “Hey, did you guys know pirates didn’t really bury their treasures and have treasure maps? That’s a myth.” More food. More talk. Then me again, “When pirates would jump another ship, if the captain would surrender immediately they wouldn’t kill him; instead, sometimes they would bring him back safely to port.” More food. Ordered dessert. “I know I keep talking about pirates, but did you know there was a 9-year-old boy who joined some pirates after they raided the boat on which he and his mother were traveling? He threatened his mom if she wouldn’t let him join them! Crazy, right?” Seriously. I am sure this couple walked away thinking I was pirate-savant.

You know what, though? I’d been with pirates all day. Well, sort of. I’d read about them, talked about them and thought about them constantly. The same principle can apply when I think about my time in the Word. If I’m regularly reading it, meditating on it, memorizing it, applying it and studying it, I will overflow with it! I absolutely cannot impress a student with the importance of being in the Word if I am not in it, as well.

Second, unapologetically include the Word in your programming. This sounds basic, a no-brainer; yet I hear some youth workers say, “We want kids to feel comfortable inviting their friends to church, so we’re not going to bring out our Bibles.” One of our youth pastor friends had an ruling board in his church tell him not to teach from the Bible always as it wouldn’t draw much of a crowd. He ended up resigning from that church.

I went to the hardware store one day; the girl ringing up my purchases looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure why. As she gave me my change she said, “So, what’s for church tonight?” Who asks that? What does that mean? I stumbled around for a bit then said, “Uhh…we’re going to play some games, eat some snacks, sing some songs and hear the Word.”

She replied, “Oh I mean what verses are we going to be learning about? I’ve never learned about the Bible before, and it’s so interesting.” That should not have caught me by surprise, but it did.

I also remember having a small group Bible study with some high school girls. We met on an occasional Thursday afternoon at a local coffee shop. When we’d meet, we’d pick a chapter in Proverbs and read it through verse by verse and talk about it. One girl said, “Oh my gosh. It’s so weird how the Bible talks about what’s happening in my house.”

Another said, “Oh!!! I keep hanging around the wrong people, That’s why I get in trouble. Do people know this stuff is in the Bible? It’s really good.”

The Word truly is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives (2 Timothy 3:16). Remember, every time you’re speaking the Word, you’re speaking truth. Your illustrations, as poignant and important as they may be, are meant only to illustrate truth. First and foremost, your message always should be the Word. It is the word itself that “exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12).

Third, you must know your story. When did the Word come alive for you? When was your life touched by a single verse? When was Scripture as a balm to your soul? I was a freshman in college and struggling with feeling any excitement about being a follower of Christ. I had just come off a year of rebellion toward the Lord and was tired of it. I was sitting on the floor of my dorm room and opened my Bible to the Book of Psalms. I’d grown up in the church and in a family where the Word was revered, so I figured it was a good thing to do. I started reading Psalms 51 and came across, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and give me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways so that sinners will turn back to You.”

It was so impressed upon me that if I would only ask God to give me joy in following after Him, He would do that—and that I had not strayed so far that He would not forgive me. That was perhaps the first time I felt as if a verse I read spoke directly to me; it gave me peace and a hope I could not explain. It was not the last time. I do not have enough time or space to include the others. What about you? Have you experienced this firsthand? Chances are you probably have. Refresh your memory. Be ready to share, which brings me to my final point.

Include Scripture in your personal contacts. As you sit across the table from a student pouring his or her heart out to you, give him or her the perfect law of the Lord to refresh the soul (Psalms 19:7). I was at McDonald’s awhile back talking with a student. She said, “I don’t know if this will make any sense to you, but I sometimes feel as if I’m trying to choose between two roads to walk. One leads to jail and prison, and the other road is like following God.” Of course we talked quite a bit about where these roads eventually lead, and I asked what her motivations were when she was on the road. How fun it was to share Matthew 7 with her and show her these roads actually have been mentioned before. There was an answer to her dilemma!

Granted, not always are the conversations we have quite so easily matched with Scripture passages, yet we know they often are. I encourage you to develop a Go-To list of Scripture verses that you can memorize. Perhaps choose 10 or so that you have in the forefront of your mind, so that when a student tells you he or she feels alone and unloved, you can listen, care and be the person who is with them and loves the individual. Then give them 1 John 3:1 to read later. This encourages them to know God is the One who loves them perfectly.

If a student is stressed and overwhelmed with school, work, family, relationships, money and friends, you can listen and in so doing help carry one another’s burdens, thereby obeying the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), as well as point to Psalms 68:19 to read later! This encourages students to know it is God who is the One who daily bears their burdens. Do you have any high school seniors who are struggling with decisions about their future? You can listen, pray for them and with them; but what a blessing for them to take away that “if [they] lack wisdom they can ask God for it who will give it to them generously and won’t criticize them for asking” (James 1:5). This encourages them to rely on God to reveal truth to them in a way they will be able to understand it.

Isn’t this what we want for our students? We want them to know that while we love them very much, God loves them perfectly; and while we can listen to their problems, God can carry them; and while we can desire what is best for them, God can reveal it to them. All this is done through the Word!

One of the happiest days in my life was the first day one of my students sent me a text with a verse of encouragement. The verse was a great encouragement. So was the text!