What I've Been Up To

It always amazes me that when someone asks me what I've been up to, I simply say "Nothing really", when that's not "really" true. I was thinking about this after bunco last night because I only see most of those ladies once a month. I've figured out that I don't like talking about myself too much and would just rather listen to other people's stories and make comments here and there. So this is what I've been up to lately and I'm proud of it. I figured since I don't enjoy talking about myself, then I will use this opportunity to give God the glory because He is changing my heart.
I have recently helped start up our church's youth group by becoming a youth group sponsor. My duties are to come up with games for the whole group and head up the mid-high girls small group. I am having a blast with these girls! We go over the week's message which is the same for the adults but changed up so that the kids can get a grasp on it. After our Youth Leader, Evan (who is so adorable, he's only 18 years old and is one of the neatest people you'd ever meet) speaks on the morning's message. I then take the girls and we just have a girls' heart to heart. I lead it by asking questions and talking about my own experiences. I really think they enjoy it too. I even had one girl make her mom get out of bed to come to church because she wanted to come to youth group! Praise Jesus! I spoke to this girl's mom's best friend and she told me that she had been trying to get her friend to come back to church and just wasn't having any luck until youth group started. When she told her that we had a youth group, she decided to bring her daughter and try it out. That next Sunday she was being pulled out of bed by her daughter to go to church! How amazing God is! The reason I'm so excited is because I wasn't a fan of church myself for awhile. I had no desire to go and be surrounded by people I viewed as hypocrites. My heart was hardening but I read this book called "The Shack" and something inside changed. I still wasn't ready for "church" but I knew that God loved me no matter what I was or where I was in my faith. For the 1st time I had "permission" just to be where I was. It was like a weight had been lifted. I knew that there would be a time for me to get back into church and when I got a flyer in the mail for a new church that was just in it's beginning stages I knew that was where I needed to be. Something small. Well, after our 1st visit I knew in my heart that God placed me there for a reason.
I have a testimony of 2 different reasons for wanting to be a part of the youth, the 1st is because when I went to church at that age it was not a pleasant experience. I always thought that church was supposed to be the one safe place for a person to be. That's not always the case though. Girls can be mean anywhere and they were. I didn't have any real friends in church. I'm hoping I can be that voice for the girls in my group when or if (probably when) it comes down to who said what about who, etc. to diffuse the situation and put things into perspective for them. The second reason is that my nephew had an awful thing happen in his school where 3 different children took their own lives and one of them was a friend of his. It broke my heart to think that a 13 year old would result to that and it could have been prevented if someone talked to them about God and His love for them.
God is amazing because I never would have dreamed in a million years that when I was feeling isolated in my youth group that I would one day lead a group of girls in a youth group. Wow!
Matt, my husband will be joining and leading the boys when he is done working so many hours. That will also be nice to be able to do that together.