I hope the following idea can be of use to youth ministries, family devotionals, family counselors, and family home evenings.

Let’s say you meet someone and from the first impression you see, he or she is an outstanding individual. This person is so impressive that you would do anything to be able to associate with him. You would like to be his friend and have him consider you as his trusted friend. Because this person is so impressive, you seek to be on your best behavior when you associate with him. In fact, you start altering your behavior to present your best self to this person

You realize that this person is not artificial but is authentic in their relationships. That means complete honesty of your strengths and weaknesses as you communicate with this person. Because this person has accomplished so much in his life, you hope that you’re association with this person will help enable you to greater success. You would like this person to be your mentor. Now you need to figure out how to convince this person that you now have the mindset to reach greater heights if he will simply advise you on the techniques of success.

This person is Christ. We learn from the Scriptures all the wonderful things that he has done. Because of his deep understanding of human nature, further, gained through his experiences in the garden of Gethsemane, He understands each of us more than anyone else.

If Christ was a business associate, and each of us were to become a partner with Christ; what would we do up hold out part of the partnership? Christ would be delighted to mentor us, but he wonders if we are committed to the eternal goals we want to achieve? If each of us wanted to create a business partnership with Christ what would be our mission statement of such a business?

I invite each of us to create a list of what traits and behaviors we would want to develop to be a partner with Christ. A mission statement might be a signified by Scripture that holds significance to you when it comes to a relationship with Christ. The values of you and Christ’s business would represent the teachings of Christ. Such a business partnership would contain yearly goals decade goals and eternal goals.

Discuss with the family or class. What kind of standards. The business should contain in order for Christ to want to be a part of that organization. If your family mostly consist of younger members maybe have them discuss creating a club instead of a business, with Christ as President and the child as vice president. What kind of club would it be?