As Seventh-day Adventist parents, we are blessed with a wealth of inspired material to aid us in helping each of our children grow in their walk with God. Ellen G. White’s Messages to Young People is an especially beloved resource for guiding our youth as they grow up into christian manhood/womanhood.
It helps to have a study guide to use along with reading the book to aid in the comprehension of this book. E.J. Dold’s Messages to Young People- A Study Guide is an extremely helpful resource perfect for guiding a student thoughtfully through the book.
What I appreciate most about the study guide is that is not solely a list of questions requiring rote answers. There are many questions where it is appropriate to lift the answer directly from the reading. However a large percentage of the questions require the student to use higher level thinking skills for summarizing passages or making a personal application of the principle discussed. The student may also be asked to make connections with Bible characters or stories. The variety of ways the student is required to interact with the material keeps the study guide interesting.
The book Messages to Young People is divided into fifteen main sections, and the study guide organizes the questions into several smaller sub-sections for each main section, making it easy to assign manageable portions of reading for the student. Interspersed within the sections are inspirational stories and readings that further reinforce the theme of that particular sub-section.
This study guide is appropriate for personal study for a high school aged student. Upper elementary and middle school students can also benefit from this guide, but may need occasional assistance with some of the vocabulary. Taking the time to work through any unfamiliar vocabulary can easily add a cross-curricular component to the study with English/Language Arts. Some students may find the space for writing answers to be a bit small for legible responses, however that can be easily remedied by having the student complete their work on a separate sheet of paper.
Although the study guide was largely intended as a resource for individual learning, I can attest that it also works very well in a group setting. I am currently ‘teaching’ the book to a group of adults and youth as a Wednesday prayer meeting study which includes my own children. The study guide questions have generated valuable discussions among our group of both new and seasoned believers.
Currently Messages to Young People – A Study Guide is available for purchase online through the following links:
Laymen’s Ministries Resource Materials- MYP Study Guide
and
days of my youth! Let me stand once more at the dividing ways, that I may choose the path of light.’ But there was no Father’s voice to answer, and the days of youth would not come back at his call. He thought of the companions of his youth who had chosen the better path, and he wished that he had gone with them. He wished that he had died in his infancy rather than to have lived a wasted life as he had done. With bitter remorse and blinding tears, he bowed his head and cried again, ‘Oh that the days of my youth would come back! oh for a touch from the guiding angel’s hand that once was put forth to lead me in the path of peace and holiness.
The Adventist Home Educator 