Relationships

This is part six of the 7-part series I posted on my blog, dedicating real estate to blogging through the transitional process--announcing departure, setting up systems for success, remembering the work God has done, looking into the future, etc.

Do you struggle in building or maintaining relationships with students?

“Seventeen summers” said the busy father, wistfully describing the memory of his oldest child growing up. He continued, “We get seventeen summer vacations, and then our children are gone.” His statement stung me as I thought about my own family experience. Is that all there is with parenting; seventeen family vacations? If scripture teaches that children are a blessing, why am I not enjoying that blessing?

As youth pastors, workers, and volunteers we must set the bar high. We can have fun, laugh and joke about life, run them until they are dead tired, and feed them until they explode, but are we filling them with God’s Word and setting a Christ-like example with everything we do and say?

This morning on the Today show they were talking about the suicide of the girl up in South Hadley Massachusetts. It is believed that the girl committed suicide because of extensive bullying mixed with a background of emotional instability.

Either way the story is sad. It made me think about the students in my ministry...