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.