The fall of last year, Matt and I became youth small group leaders through our church. We, along with about 8 other adult leaders meet with high school students once a week to discuss the Bible, life issues & relationships and have fun. Of course, this seemed a bit daunting at first. Would we be able to relate to the students? Would they trust us? Like us? Think we were sticks in the mud?
The thing that convinced us to do it was the memories of youth leaders that invested in us when we were in high school. They were 20-somethings and 30-somethings that chose to hang out with us awkward, annoying, gnarly teenagers over their peers and provide a model of what a cool, devoted Christian looks like. They invested in us and we wanted to "pay it forward." And by the way, all of our small group is pretty cool--no gnarly teens yet. Little did I know that our "paying it forward" would "pay me back" as well.
On Tuesday, a handful of our small group girls came over to meet William and surprised us with some A LOT of gifts. I remember being in high school, not having an income--and I know that the onesies and blankets that they brought were a sacrifice for our little boy. It was such a sweet sight to see these young girls cradling and cooing at William and sharing their love with him. I realized that while our intent was to "give back" to them, they had in fact given so much more to us. Below is a shot of them meeting William, and then a shot of William meeting all of his new clothes from them. So sweet and so generous. What a blessing.
As I sit here watching my little boy sleep (in an outfit furnished by our small group girls), I imagine what he will be like as a Jr. High and High School student. I don't care as much about whether he is gnarly or awkward as much as I care about his character and convictions. Who will pour into his life? Who will invest the time to offer wisdom and guidance when he doesn't want to come to us for it?
And it hits me... It, may very well, be one of these young men from our small group. Here is one to boggle the mind: One of our high school young men, Josh, is the son of a woman who was my Jr. High youth leader. It has already come full circle, and it could come full circle again. Someday, Josh could be hanging out with Liam and his friends on Tuesday nights, talking about God and girls and life and probably the fight that Liam had with his mom and dad earlier that night (lets hope not...but it's possible). So we better be the best leaders we can be to inspire this generation to be the leaders and role models for the next.
Once, a co-worker of mine asked me something to this effect: "What should I do to make sure my daughter turns out as well as you did--avoiding so much of the filth of this world." I pondered the question for a moment and responded with two reasons:
1) Parents that modeled faith and provided me with a healthy fear of God, consequences and right vs. wrong.
2) Peers that had the same belief system and collectively decided to stay out of trouble and "do the right thing."
I would now add a third: Role models, aside from your parents and peers, who can invest wisdom and a Godly example into the next generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment