Seeds

I just got back from BigStuf Camps in Daytona Beach, Florida with the Advance crew. 5 days of AMAZING sermons (don't worry, more blog posts to come), the beach, hanging out with awesome students and leaders, awesome worship music, and crazy room antics courtesy of some pretty cool 9th grade girls.

I am always amazed how much God teaches me during these experiences, when I think I am there just for the kids, so they can have fun and experience God in a new way.

To be honest, I did not have the best internal attitude at the beginning of the trip. I was frustrated, because the trip did not match my mental picture of what was going to happen. (Side note: why do I/we continually expect God to play out our lives to our mental pictures? If we are surrendered to Him and His adventurous plan for our lives, why do we cling to our own feeble human plans and expectations?) I prayed for guidance, that God would use me and reveal why He burdened my heart to go on this trip.

And He did! I felt directed this week to study 1 Corinthians.

1 Cor 3:6-7: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow."

Inside my Bible, from a previous Advance leader training, was a packet of seeds with these verses written on it. The point, as I remember, is that as youth leaders, we work all year to plant seeds in these students. Seeds of God's love and truth. Seeds of our own personal love. Seeds of discipline. Seeds that show we care about them, about their lives, about their faith. Then, we have to sit back, pray, and wait for God to work.

I can't say that I saw any of my girls do a complete 180, or that I helped lead a student to Christ. But I saw and heard students discussing God seriously when I hadn't heard them do that before. Students willingly and openly discussed aspects of their behavior that is sinful and brings them further from God. We had open, honest discussions about relationships in which the girls and I were all in tears. I got a ton of hugs, cuddles, and a bed full of sand and Nerds.

I have to keep reminding myself that these are teenagers, to meet them where they are in their lives and their faith journeys. And considering that...I saw some major change and growth this week.

Seeds became seedlings. Praise be to the Gardener that helps these seeds grow!