Wow, it's been way too long since I did a blog post. Hopefully I can get better at posting more regularly. This one is a #thenmyyouthparentsaid anyways here goes...
Last night was our annual 1/2 lock-in (we leave at midnight - I don't do the staying the whole night anymore). It's been a crazy busy week. We had a big fundraiser Thursday night with my wife's job. Between preparing for that and actually putting it on, I didn't get a lot of sleep this week. I had a killer headache, somehow miscommunication happened and all the chairs were setup in our gym for our early service - meaning we had to take them all down and set them back up after the lock-in - so needless to say I was tired and frustrated, all I really wanted to do was go home and sleep. Especially because I knew that today I'd be getting up early to travel across the state to have early Thanksgiving with my wife's family.
I was running around the church frantically making sure everything was ready when I got a text from the mother of one of my seniors:
"While all the seniors are celebrating senior night and the home football game he seems so excited about spending the his evening with you and the others."
This dude who could have been going to the senior night football game at his high school, chose instead to come hang out at the lock-in. I just stopped and stood there in amazement at how one small text, one simple sentence, can make all the headaches, heartaches, lock-ins, sleepless nights, trips, Bible studies, etc., worth it. What a great reminder of the privilege I have to be able to watch all these youth grow from the goofy little 6th graders into amazing young men and women.
To all the youth pastors/youth workers/volunteers out there, a word of encouragement: you are appreciated more than you know. Never take for granted this amazing thing God has called us to do.
To all the youth out there, whether you are still in youth group or off at college: take a moment right now to send your youth pastor a quick text or email to let him or her know how much he or she is appreciated. It doesn't take much and you cannot possibly imagine how much it'll mean to them.
Wednesday night at youth we talking about Thanksgiving and being thankful. Last night I was reminded just how thankful I am to do what I do.
