So Proud of You!

Hey Planet Impact! I just want to let you all know that I was so proud of you tonight! Worship team, you are continuing to grow by leaps and bounds, and I appreciate all of your hard work. Tonight all of us joined together with the adults for the climax of our missions convention, and your passion for Jesus was contagious. I was so blessed to see you all participating during the worship by clapping your hands, lifting your hands to the Lord in worship, and singing. You paid attention, and some of you were even taking notes during the message. When the altar call was given, you were the first ones to respond to the invitation.

You really modeled I Timothy 4:12: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example ...."

Can I be candid with you? Sometimes youth ministry can seem discouraging. One week everyone is full of life and fully participating in the services and we (the youth leaders) go home so excited and full of hope. The next week everyone seems dead, trying to worship is like trudging through quicksand, it seems like no one is paying attention during the message, and all we hear about are kids giving our leaders attitude. Our leaders go home vowing that on Thursday morning they are going to resign from working with students forever. That's just how it seems to go sometimes. I'm giving you a little window into the world of youth workers here.

But then there is a perspective that gives me great hope and inspiration. Tonight after service, Pastor Zarlengo was so excited and full of praise for the tremendous growth he is seeing in you, our youth! Since he only has opportunity to see you every few months, he has a different perspective from me and the regular youth leaders. He used this analogy: When you are working out regularly, you can feel like you are really not doing that much; that you're not making a different; and you can get frustrated and disillusioned because you're not really seeing the growth and change. However, if you have been working out regularly and suddenly run into a friend you haven't seen in a while, their reaction is, "Wow! You're really looking good! I can tell you've been working out. I can see the change!"

It was a blessing and a great reminder of exactly what I spoke about the other week when I talked about the invitation of Jesus to follow Him. Remember I mentioned that following Jesus is not about monuments, but footsteps. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. It's not a still photo, but a motion picture. As we look at things in perspective, I can see just how much you have grown, just how far you have come, just how much you have matured over the last few years, and I am super proud of you! Keep up the great work of following Jesus! I love you!

- PK

So Proud of You!