My Kids

Great Retreat. It was called Anti-Gravity and Rudy talked about how we, as Christians, need to go against the world (defy gravity) and be like Jesus, obey God, and go the extra mile for our friends -not just be good people, but be Jesus to the world. It was definetly a time for me that really woke me up about the fact that I was there for the kids (the middle schoolers) and not for myself. It's all about the kids; whatever is going on in my life at the time needs to be put out of mind so that I can focus and love on the students wholeheartedly.
The last session, this morning, I started tearing up just thinking about how all my kids are in 8th grade and how they've grown up so much since I met them 3 years ago.. I can't believe they're going to be in highschool next year. They're growing up! They're becoming adults! They're not just silly little children anymore -they have real drama, real issues, real everything. It all has meaning for them now and it's crazy how much that changes everything. It's been a slow change, but over the past few years, I've been able to watch them and see them become more aware of their surroundings, become less self-absorbed, gain friendships with the opposite sex, wrestle with questioning their faith and just figuring out what they're all about. I love them (Sabhia, Emily, Hannah, Isaac, Bryce, Austin C., Austin Taylor, Kim, Alyssa, McKenzie, Morgan, Andrew, Rose). They're my kids, it's so weird to feel like I'm letting them go. I just want to keep them small, maybe if I keep them in middleschool, they'll stay small forever (like how a shark doesnt grow if his tank stays small). But alas, I have to let them grow up in order to give them the reigns for student leadership, so that they can lead the next group of middle schoolers. Ah, I can already tell that the next few months I'm going to cry and cry hard over this. I didn't realize until this morning that they're going to leave me and become highschoolers. They'll be my peers.