Back In Junior High Again

Can I just tell you that I had my first serious boyfriend in the sixth grade? Little did I know that one relationship that lasted into my eighth grade year would define my life as an adult. Today I am the junior high ministry coordinator and just to clear things up I never thought I'd work with Jr. High students. First of all I am and Early Childhood Education major, so I specialize in the learning and development of infant through five year olds. Second of all I was not a Christian when I was in junior high so many times I find it hard to think about what I would do if I were them because I was not being taught truth in the way that many of my students are. Funny the places God brings you along life's road.....

Anyways, you'd think this post would be to complain about my position in life and try to hurry on out of it. On the contrary, I have been so stretched in the last month-being pulled out of my comfort zone and into the Lord's comfort and I am loving every minute of it! All the kids have just been so awesome! I am so thankful God has let me be used to have an influence in their lives and that the kids welcome me in and make me feel at home. They are in a rather awkward in between stage in life and yet they have fun, love God and build relationships with people in a way that the rest of us should do. At first I thought they would be dealing with issues in their lives that were rather petty and unimportant in the big scheme of the adult work of marriage, bills, and careers, but rather they are making choices (just like I did at that age) that are defining themselves now! How scary to think that so many people do not want to work with junior high students but in fact it's these students that we could help find a saving knowledge of Christ and help them grow in the Lord before they become bitter adults with their own busy schedules and harsh perceptions of the Gospel.

The point of the matter is that I was an awful junior higher! I was dating and experimenting and putting my mom through Hades and yet God saw fit to show my His grace so that I could love and serve Him, and if I could help one student going into the seventh grade make a decision to follow Christ and save them (and their parents) the heartache and pain of sin and the from the emptiness inside that comes from a need for the Holy Spirit then why on earth would I want to miss that opportunity! Praise God that He takes out of places that are comfortable and into a life of excitement and power!