The Pay Off

As most of you know, I work with the youth at my church, and specifically lead the 9th and 10th graders. This is only my second year to work with them and my style is not to act like an 18 year old so they will like me, but instead to be myself and try to be a good example. Clearly I have made several mistakes and find it a fine balance to be myself and show that I'm not perfect, but also to show them what it's like to live a Christian life. (This could be debated by my recent performance of "Ice, Ice Baby" in our lip sync contest....along with other musical choices by our youth leaders. Many of my students were shocked that I could "lip-sync rap" which, of course, is much easier than just rapping. This is not the first time I've done such a thing on stage, sweet children). But another struggle is being "on" every week...sometimes I'm just tired or unprepared...and I have to dig deep to listen and teach them.

I have some personal goals this year as we are splitting the group and I will have only the girls. I'm hoping to invest in them a little more, which takes more time and effort. The introvert and adult in me wants to just say hi to my students and then stick with the other leaders in the back while the youth bowl. Part of this is also self-preservation as bowling is not a strength of mine (although Paris folks--remember the good times at Paris Lanes? Totally shady, I'm pretty sure). But this time, I joined a group and we bowled and I had the best time. They are so hilarious and I learned that there are many more forms of social media than I was aware of, although I still do not understand how they have time to do them all....how do you have that much to share? I digress...

And do you know what? In that conversation, I shared that I had not yet seen Frozen. They were aghast! I explained to them that my preference in movies did not extend to animated ones, although I had heard it was a great film. And do you know what happened the next day? I received a text inviting me to join them on Saturday to see the movie. Yep, that's right, they invited an adult to hang out with them voluntarily. Huge.

Honestly, I was more excited about this than having a date! I bought a large bag of Sour Patch Kids candy (my go-to) to share and actually enjoyed an animated Disney film with some lovely teenagers. (It has some solid messages and analogies, by the way, and it was a musical! Which I'm sure I should have known before....)

All that to say, look what can come of investing and getting a little uncomfortable...looking forward to my Wednesday nights!