What Love Really Means

Week one of student teaching is done!  I am so excited for the next six weeks and for working with the kids in my classes.  It is going to be busy no doubt, but I think it will all be worth it in the end.  I love the kids I am working with and even though I have questioned if this is really what I want to do with my life, I think it is.  My passion for teens was renewed in the past few weeks. 

This week between youth group and school I have realized how broken these kids lives are and how much they have going on in their personal lives.  It absolutely breaks my heart.  I cannot imagine going through half of the things that they are going through now.  On Wednesday as I was driving into school the song "What Love Really Means" by JJ Heller came on the radio.  The first verse and chorus go like this... 

 

He cries in the corner where nobody sees
He's the kid with the story no one would believe
He prays every night, "Dear God won't you please...
Could you send someone here who will love me?"Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me
'Cause nobody has shown me what love
What love really means

At the end of the song the chorus changes to...

 

I will love you for you
Not for what you have done or what you will become
I will love you for you
I will give you the love
The love that you never knew

 

I almost cried when I heard the song because it is exactly what I needed to hear.  I think that this is what God has called me to do, at least for now.  Teaching and doing youth group are my way to love these kids no matter what.  This is what they need.  They need to know someone cares about them and what is going on.  They need someone to talk to.  They need someone who is not going to judge them based on their choices and hurts and brokenness.  I feel like we are too quick to judge people based on half truths and things that we hear and know, but we don't really get to know people.  I want to get to know my students and the teens I work with and just love them for who they are.

 

Tops, God and Deception

     Working at Tops, like many other jobs, comes with lots of stories.  I have more stories about working there and the customers that come in than I can count.  Many times I work on U-Scan where customers can check their groceries out.  It is my responsibility to help those who do not know how to work the machines and to make sure that people are not shoplifting.  One of the most common things that I encounter on U-Scan is people who go back to the bulk section, put their candy in a bag, weigh and label it and then add more candy.  Or they just mislabel the product altogether so they are getting a cheaper rate. Each of the U-Scan machines has a scale on which the groceries get weighed and the machine then alerts me if the weight is incorrect.  The other night, a customer did just this to me.  She weighed her dog bones and then added more.  I don't say anything to them, I just take the product void it off and reweigh it correctly.  But I always wonder the same thing...Do I have stupid written across the top of my forehead? 
     As I started thinking about this, God asked me how this is any different than what I and many others do to Him.  We are dumb humans who constantly try to make ourselves look better than we really are.  We think that we can deceive God into thinking that we didn't participate in a certain sin or that we are really better than we are. We are simply sinners in need of Jesus to come and save us and mold us into who He wants us to be.  God knows our hearts and our motives.  We don't need to hide our hearts from God, He already knows what we think and what we do.  Just like I knew that my customer was being dishonest with the weight of the food, God knows when were are being dishonest and only half truthful with Him.  He already knows all the secrets of our hearts.  There is no need to make ourselves look stupid as we try and hide things from Him.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!  Along with the new year comes resolutions for what we want to change in the upcoming year.  I for one am terrible at keeping them.  I set them and keep them maybe for a week and then I break them and give up.  This year I only have one resolution that I hope to keep.  I want to read my Bible from start to finish.  It is something that I have never done.  I am 21 and have not finished the Bible in its entirety.
I just returned from chaperoning Joshua Revolution, a three day youth conference.  It had worship and speakers to challenge you as well as seminars to help you grow.  While my youth were busy getting student training, I had the opportunity to attend youth workers training.  I learned a lot and wish I could have attended more.  I was able to hear Mark Cahill speak about youth and why they are walking away from their faith when they go to college.  I won't get into a lot of detail about that now, maybe later.  Mark Cahill focuses on evangelizing and reaching the lost for Jesus.  The youth loved him when he spoke at the main session.  During the session I attended, he was talking about youth leaders and how it is so important that we be knowledgeable on the scripture and on modern day issues in the church.  Youth are not seeing enough  Bible teaching in youth group because many youth groups focus on entertaining.  We were given a quiz on different speeches given by famous people and we needed to identify what was in contradiction to what the Bible says and then identify a scripture to back it up.  Many of us could not do it.  This is where my new years resolution comes from.  I want to be able to give answers and know what I am talking about, better than I do now.  I owe it to the youth I work with and the people that I come into contact with to have this understanding.