Encouragers wanted

I just got back from junior high choir rehearsal. Wow, those kids have a lot of energy, not always channeled in the right direction. It wears a person out! These kids are getting ready for their annual choir tour, and it is a hectic week. Sometimes tempers flare, sometimes focus isn’t there, and then all of a sudden something kicks in and wow, look at ‘em shine.

During times like this, I’m reminded that adults are fallible, that kids are kids, that not everyone has bought into the whole “ministry” mindset, and that I’m not as young as I used to be. However, through all that God brings to mind wonderful things as well. We’ve got a lot of great kids under all that squirrely-ness and people really do want to serve God, they just lose sight of the “important” now and then and have to be brought back on board.

Have you lost sight of the importance of people over programs? Do you get bogged down in the worries of church conflict? Do you sometimes want to strangle the kids you work with instead of hugging them? Well, you’re in good company. Yet, hopefully the God we serve can remind us of the good things around us.

Several years ago Oprah asked her audience to start keeping thanksgiving journals. The idea was that each individual should take some time everyday to list five blessings in her life—things or people or whatever that she was thankful for.

Let’s take the idea and re-work it for youth ministry wives. Let’s start encouraging one another with the good things in our lives. Not to make light of the problems we face, of course. The problems are there, and they need to be dealt with, but let’s not get bogged down by them. We do have great blessings in our lives as well! Let’s give God praise for these blessings and share them with each other here and by doing so, encourage each other. Take some time to post some blessings in your lives and in your ministry. Hebrews 10:25b “Let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”