All Jr. High Girls

I spent last weekend with five jr. high girls, along with two of our female staff. Thanks to all who prayed for us over the weekend. There should be pictures of the weekend up at the LCC Youth Pictures Web Site in about two weeks (our web page poster is on vacation). It was certainly different than a weekend with the guys. I focused my weekend on communicating with the girls what it means to be a daughter of the King. I keyed off three movies - "Princess Diaries I and II" (two of Shari's favorite movies) and "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (Eowyn was the daughter of the King of Rohan) (one of my top five movies of all time), and focused on who they are, not their behavior. I am convinced that, as we learn who we are in Christ, and learn to believe those things are true, our behavior, in general, will change to follow that. I know there are exceptions (having to learn how a child of the King behaves, for example), but, in general, I have found that this is true. As a secondary focus, I discussed some with the girls what it means to express our worship to God through song, as well as our lives in general. We had some great times, and I think a foundation is being poured into their lives. Four of the five are seventh graders, and two of the five don't attend church regularly anywhere, so a foundation beyond just head knowledge is needed, and it's starting now.

More importantly than the messages I delivered, though, was the play time we had together. Because of the girl-guy thing, I endeavored to stay on the fringe, letting Julie and Meghan be the primary adults for the girls to get to know. We played games, made meals together, and just hung out. I was in bed by 10:30, while the girls were talking and giggling in their dorm until almost midnight. However, in my opinion, the most important event and discussion occurred during the bonfire. Heather (an alias) made a comment about having a boyfriend. She had been commenting about boyfriends all day, and it was pretty clear to us as staff that her identity is tied up a lot in her relationships to boys. Julie and Meghan took that opportunity to talk with her (and, by default, all the girls) about that felt need to be loved, and the roll boys play in that. Heather opened up about how she had a boyfriend primarily not to feel lonely. Not only was it a great talk about a girl's identity, but also it was a great time of allowing one young lady to open up about who she believes she is. It definitely communicated to all of us as staff the need to continue talking about who we are in Christ, and how He fulfills this deepest longing. Now, let's talk about our self-centered view of the Gospel...