The Kids Are Alright

36, Day 59 (Written Wednesday February 8) ~ Today was such a wonderful day. I got a glimpse of the future that I wondered about 10 years ago. At that time I was a young (26) year old preacher who taught the high school Bible class on Sundays and Wednesdays. It was always an awesome, jam packed class. I loved hanging out with the kids (perhaps because I wasn't very far removed from them). I taught them at church and then they hung out with my family when we weren't at church. It's hard to say just how many of them there were because kids would come and go, but there was a core group that was always around. We had devotionals together, went on stateside mission trips together, went to the movies together, hung out at our house together, ate lunch together, went to haunted houses together. I never quite knew how I felt about them. Were they my youth group, were they my friends, were they like my kids. I guess they were a little of all three. They were also good kids. They weren't perfect, on more than one occasion they called me and my wife asking for help or advice getting out of sticky situations. But they were good kids. Even when they weren't with my family, they together. They were a group of friends with a core group of 5 kids, with as many as 5 others that came in and out of the group. At times back then I wondered what they would be like when they grew up, what they would become and how their lives would turn out. I don't have to wonder anymore.

Recently I have spent time with all of them, and they are all adults now. They are bonafide grown ups, out of college, working jobs, having their first homes/apartments and they are doing great. Their lives aren't perfect (whose is?), but they are happy, productive and successful. They haven't fully become what they will, but they are on their way. They have achieved goals and chased dreams and changed plans, faced reality and had their hearts broken. They are married, dating, single (no babies yet, but a foster/surrogate dad/big brother can dream). It's still hard for me to see them and think of them as adults, but that is what they are. When I met them they were younger than my youngest child is now. Their stories have not been fully told and I'm not the one to tell it anyway. I won't tell you who they are (they know who they are, and if you know me very well, you likely know who they are too), but I do want to tell you and them I'm so proud of them. The kids are alright.