Shortly after this picture was taken, one freshly graduated youth group senior fell 15' down a rocky slope at Shades State Park at one of my annual senior guys canoe trips.I can think of several prime examples of why I shouldn't be allowed to work with youth. And despite these serious short-comings, my wife, as a director of a local youth cooperative of churches, insisted I be at her side. Sometimes I took the lead, or took over during maternity leaves. By and by, I enjoyed it and there were about a dozen guys I got pretty close to during the 5 years of torture. Many of those guys still swing by the house, email, etc. today.
I had no desire to work with youth. My own youth group experience was not so great-I just knew what I DIDN'T want it to be. I found myself learning along the way, and I have to hope that something I said stuck.
I remember a conversation with one guy, a few years after high school, when I asked......man, what went wrong with so and so......did I encourage that behavior? Wasn't he in the same room with you when I said don't do that kinda stuff? The response was simple, "yeah, but you did your job-it's up to them to work things out with God"
Maybe this is good training for raising kids. As much as we pour into them, they will have to make their own judgement call on things. I just hope, just like the guys from the youth group, they won't mind talking thru those issues with someone older, and hopefully wiser. Wiser than me!
2 comments:
I am going to write a post about our use of the word "community". I think that's a good one and will be giving you a shout out.
Jon
stuff christians like
for my friends out there, prodigal jon is the author of "stuff christians like" as it says below his name, I'd encourage a visit to his site - you'll love it.
I found myself falling out of my chair laughing at some of his posts.
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