(I realize this post is late. I forgot to post yesterday.)
Ministry Activities:
Retreat: 8 hours
Evening Church: 1 hour
Personal Reflection:
Retreat was amazing as usual. On Sunday morning, we got up, had breakfast, and had a lesson. I gave the lesson and we talked about God's nature throughout history, but mainly focused on Genesis. It was a decent lesson, but I should have taken into account that all the teens were going to be so tired that none of them would want to participate. Oh well, we live and we learn. After the lesson we packed up and cleaned up, then left for home. By this time, everyone was really cranky and really just needed sleep, but they were all too uncomfortable to sleep in the van. On the way home, we stopped at a birthday party for an older man in our church (the party was in Indy). None of the teens wanted to stop even though they all know the man pretty well. We made them stop anyways. They had cake and probably some punch. We were there less than 30 minutes, then continued on our trip home.
The biggest problem I had on retreat was the teens did not really respect my authority. I realize I am close to their age and that I am their friend, but it is frustrating when I try to put my foot down and they do not listen. It probably also makes a difference that I am such a push-over, and they know this about me. I rarely get angry with them and when I do it passes quickly. This weekend really did show me that I need to stand my ground more often if this is something I will eventually be in charge of with no one else to stick up for me. We were the group in the Creation Museum that people would walk by and say, "Stupid teenagers." We had kids playing in the water that said "Please stay out of the water" and basically touching everything in sight. I think this is a problem for boys in general becasue my Dad still does this, and he is almost 50 years old. It was hard for me to discipline teenagers who are at least a foot taller than me because I knew that I could not really enforce anything.
Spiritual Reflection:
I have been really focused on God this week. I have had little homework and have just been doing real life ministry to the people around me. I love being able to relax with my friends and hang out without having worries in the back of my mind. Jesus has been so good to me and I want to be good to Him. I realize not everyone is as lucky as I am when I hear stories from my friends of things they are going through. It is tough to live in a world such as we do today and not be influenced by the things around us. I am in earnest prayer for the situations my friends are going through and hope for the best always. It is important to rely on God, which is so easy to say when you are not the one going through it. I have put my faith in God and I have nothing else to put my trust it.
Praise God!!!
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Hey Kristie,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that the retreat went well for you. I understand your problem with enforcing discipline. I have talked over and over again with Kyle about this. The one thing he is teaching me is to stand firm, but after you have been firm reassure them that you still love them and care about them. For us, this may mean being firm and sticking to what we have said and then before they leave or a little while laying pulling them aside and say, "I want you to know that the only reason I got on you was because...You still mean a lot to me and I care about you." or whatever just as long as they know that we still care about them - that is why we get on them in the first place! I'm a push over too and people know that just by looking at me, I'm learning right along with you. Thanks for praying for me (i know you are!) your words in your spiritual reflection were very uplifting. Have a good night!