In this season of being thankful, I think back to my
younger days in my youth. There are so
many things that I can now see God totally planned perfectly during this time in
my life.
Lately I have really been thinking about friends from
church and youth group. I have a son who
is in middle school and two daughters that are at the end of their elementary
years. My kids are entering the age of
‘youth group’ at church. Those years may
not be the pinnacle of everything perfect you must have as a youth, but I do
look back and see the importance of all of my friends—especially in THAT time
of my life. What a sweet, awesome,
beautiful blessing. I had several
different friends in different stages of my youth at church and these were
people that seemed to always be a steady backbone in the blurry craziness of
life in school, family and all that comes with that!
I would say I had a pretty quiet life in a home where I
was loved by my parents and always knew it.
When I was a child, I was quite shy and like most kids—trying to feel my
way around those awkward Middle School Years.
Friends were essential. Of course
I had my ‘best’ friend, Shawn from First grade on. She would come with me to various Church
events and trips in late elementary school.
We hung out pretty solid. She was
a gracious gift from God for me.
As time went on, I became friends with several girls at
church. Many went to other schools. This was great. If you had a bad week at school, they did not
know anything about it and you could just pick up and enjoy youth group
events. This totally made those things
feel minor!
As a freshman, I entered Youth Choir. Now, I had been in kids’ Choir for
years—really non-stop since age 5, I think.
Youth Choir was great because you were able to interact with even more kids. Many of my friends entered right along with
me. It was fun and we could be social and go on the infamous ‘Choir Tour’ at
the beginning of the summer. Sunday nights
after church were sometimes spent going to eat together, or deciding who had
parents that would host us over at their house!
Those years in Youth Choir were great for me. I not only had some great friends that were
girls but also some great friends that were guys, too. There was a group of friends when I was a 9th
grader that would include me and really give me a hard time. It was all fun pleasant ‘ribbing’ and only
encouraged me to dish it back. Well, I
should say the girls always had my back, but the guys liked to give me a hard
time as the ‘Rookie’ choir member. We
would all laugh until our sides split.
Many of these in this crew were older and graduated on out in the coming
years. Only to have more funny and crazy
(but good kids) guys and girls move on in to Youth Choir and youth group in
general.
These are kids who learned about Jesus right along with
me, then were Believers right along with me as we ventured through youth at
church together. I could relax and feel
safe with these friends. I could be
goofy or have a tough day and these are people that would not skip a beat.
(Sometimes they just ignited with more sarcasm with a smile….but that would
usually just bring on the laughter)
There is something so
beautiful and deliberate about this. God always knew WHO I needed in my life RIGHT
when I needed it the most. These are
kids and friendships that helped me grow. What a complex time in my life but
yet I can see the ebb and flow of God’s design for me in the form of
friendships.
It is my constant prayer that as my kids grow, they will
have friends in youth group like these.
I see the importance of it and want the same for my kids. I can still see “to everything there is a
season…” in that part of my life. That
season was great for me and I will cherish it!
I will always have a soft spot for my friends from the ‘old days’ in
youth group and Youth Choir. I am so grateful for those friendships. So
cheers to you guys—you all know who you are, for putting up with my crazy
jokes, sarcasm, goofy antics and just hanging out with me. You really were a blessing in my life! Thank you.
“To everything there is a season, and
a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
(“Everything that happens in this world happens at the
time God chooses.”)
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1, King James and Good News Translation
With Joy,
Tracey
Pink
Lizzard Designs
No comments:
Post a Comment