Lesson Learned or Learning...

Don’t you hate when you tell someone some really good wisdom and then have to learn the same lesson a week later. I usually say something like, “Lord, I already learned this lesson. Didn’t you hear me telling that other person about this? I don’t feel the need to learn this!” I told a good friend of mine last week that as a man he must put all his love out even though it may not be returned. This week was a hard week students wise. It was a really small group and half of them were related. They came from a small town and weren’t very susceptible to others, me. I did not feel like I really connected with the students or that they were even interested in getting to know me. They seemed pretty disrespectful and not interested in any programming we did. Some of this may have been because of the fact that their youth leaders both ended up not being able to come last minute because of the family death and so two leaders stepped in really quick. Maybe between the new dynamics to their group, the closeness of the group and town, and the fact that it rained like all week so I did not go on site a lot because of the small quarters of inside site work, all of these turned into little connection and bonds made for me this week. So I started to get kind of bitter and apathetic towards the group. I was putting less effort into getting to know them and having an attitude towards them. I then realized that I was doing the same thing that I was warning my friend against doing to the girl he was pursuing. Jesus did not call me down here this summer to only love the students that are respectful and who are easy to love but to love all including those hard to love and will give nothing in return. I needed to pray to get a heart change since mine was not right toward these students. It was too late to change my actions toward this week’s students, but I think it will change my perspective for the remainder weeks. I’m still learning!