High School Camp and God’s Great Love

Two weeks ago, I packed up my suitcase and went to high school camp. This was my third consecutive year to attend as a small group leader. I was so excited to go!

I serve in Students at my church for a few reasons… the palpable energy of their excitement that regularly gives me chills, and the laughter and fun of being around them being at the top… but it wasn’t my first choice when the idea came to me two years ago. It’s not in my comfort zone to work with teens. It brings out my insecurities, and I’ve had to “get over myself” on many levels over the last two years, which I’m sure was part of God’s point in sending me to this place in my life.

That aside, I firmly believe the Lord directed me to serve as a small group leader and pray for these teens because they need it! Teens carry so much more than we realize. Their burdens are huge, some are downright devastating, and many have nowhere to turn for help.

They put pressure on themselves, they make mistakes, they beat themselves up, and they give themselves away to lesser things, often sinful things, because they do not know their worth. They do not know they were created by God for a specific purpose.

Sounds a lot like myself as a teenager. I needed a strong voice in my life then, and hopefully I can be that voice for the teens in my small group now. A voice that always leads them back to Jesus.

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:2

During the week of high school camp, I spent a few early mornings drinking coffee by the lake so I could think and pray in preparation for the day. These were some of my favorite times of the week.

One morning in particular, I prayed through tears for the Lord to help me love and lead these kids well, like He would desire for me to do. “Help me see them like You see them, Lord! Help me to love them like You would love them.” The last thing I wanted to do was get all the way to camp only to miss the mark of what He set out for me to do.

Within a moment of praying for God’s help, many memories came to mind of raising my own teens and praying for the same kind of help with them. This is the truth I know…

My children would be twisted up inside if I did not see them for who they truly are, and love them unconditionally. I am not God, so I have needed help with this, and have failed many times in this area through the years!

It was a fight to see them instead of seeing myself IN them:

• Their likes and dislikes are not mine.
• Their passions and callings are not mine.
• Their personalities and expectations are not mine.
• They do not want what I want.
• They do not need what I need.
• They do not struggle where I struggle.
• They do not like what I like.
• They. Are. Not. Me.

Sometimes “seeing” is difficult, but finding the center of our children is worth the effort, and that is exactly what the Father was directing me to do with my small group girls.

Find their true selves as best you can, and love them right where they are, warts and all. Get to know them! Sometimes all it takes is standing consistently in the same place without moving, and without leaving. Always loving, always accepting, always forgiving… always showing mercy and grace by God’s strength and not your own.

You’ll end up loving them through something when the time comes, because they will see that you can be trusted.

Even when you have to be hard on them sometimes, find them in the center of who God made them to be, and love them based on that. Everything else is just noise!

Even if all you can see in the midst of disobedience, attitude, and bad choices is that they are a child of God, love them based on that. Even when you have to have a firm hand and a matter-of-fact “no,” love them like He would love them… with grace, mercy, and forgiveness mixed in a thousand times over.

Ask Him for His help, and do it in His strength, not your own.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

I cried and prayed over these thoughts and how I would apply them to my small group girls. God’s direction in that quiet time moment was so incredibly helpful during ministry times with my girls over the following two days of camp.

One felt she had no purpose, another felt that she would never be able to be close to God. One cried quietly and did not want to share, another confessed her struggle with being vulnerable so she could receive prayer.

Asking God for His help, and being able to see those girls through His eyes, allowed me to speak scripture into each circumstances they were facing. To speak life over them, and to offer them hope. This was not because of anything I had done! I cannot take any credit… just like I can’t take credit for any success I’ve had with my own children.

All I did… and you can do this, too… was to get myself out of the way and let God do His work. Every step of the way, I asked Him, “Ok, what’s next? What do we do now?” He is faithful to answer us anytime we ask Him for help.

My prayer with this post is that we will love those around us like the Father would love them. My prayer is also that we would receive His truth about ourselves… His love, acceptance, and forgiveness for ourselves… so we can be healed and whole. What is true for “them” is also true for you. Jesus loves you, warts and all. His grace is for you. I pray you receive Him just as you are, and that you would follow Him as He shows you how.

This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 18:30