Amusements are not essential, even for our youth. Every young man and woman should be totally focused on living to glorify God. Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 138

Full text of the devotional: “Kept in the Love of the Truth,” May 4

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.

Our young people need to be surrounded with wholesome, uplifting influences. They are to be kept in the love of the truth. The standard set before them should be high. Some feel a desire to be left without restraint, that they may do as they please... The fathers and mothers... in the church are under sacred obligation to watch for the souls of their children as they that must give an account. Let none, neither parents nor the youth, begin to believe that amusements are essential, and that a careless disregard of the Holy Spirit during hours of selfish pleasure is to be lightly regarded. God will not be mocked. Let every young man, every young woman, consider, “Am I prepared today for my life to close? Have I the heart preparation that fits me to do the work which the Lord has given me to do?”

Every youth should make God’s Word his guide and daily gather from the Word the instruction that is given. If some refuse to be guided by this instruction, they are sowing seeds that the enemy has placed in their hands, and they will not care to reap the harvest of the seeds sown...

There are many things which are right in themselves, but which, perverted by Satan, prove a snare to the unwary. The gathering together of our youth for a singing exercise sounds very harmless, but it has been my experience, during half a century, that these singing exercises often prove a source of much harm to souls. If the hearts of all who attend were right with God; if all loved God supremely, and desired to keep His glory in view; if all would strive to please Him, then such exercises would not prove harmful. But usually there are present many who do not realize that they are becoming more and still more unconcerned regarding their duty to please God. Their souls become indifferent. One has an influence over another, and the indifference manifested toward spiritual things increases. God’s Holy Word is not studied diligently day by day, and because of lack of spiritual food, they grow weak in moral power...

Oh, that every member, every worker, might realize that this life is a school in which to prepare for examination by the God of heaven with regard to purity, cleanness of thought, unselfishness of action. Every word and act, every thought, is recorded on the record books of heaven.—Letter 144, May 4, 1906, to the church in Mountain View, California.