You Go Girl!

I am the leader of a particular ministry at my church. It is a children’s ministry that involves children that live in the community surrounding our church. Most of these kids are disadvantaged in many ways. They are from broken homes, their parents are or have been in jail, drugs and alcohol are part of their daily lives. I was “appointed” to the role of leader somewhat by default. I started out as the only teacher of a few children. The ministry grew to the point of needing multiple teachers for about twenty children. I suppose since I had a history with the kids I was chosen to be the leader.

I am generally a much better follower than leader. I don’t feel that I possess any leadership skills. I prefer to be behind the scenes doing my work in the background. Nevertheless I find myself in this role so I’ve prayed for the skills and the desire to do this to the best of my ability. I fall far short of that most of the time, but I keep trying. Thankfully I have a wonderful team of co-workers supporting me and the ministry.

Recently I sent an e-mail to my co-workers regarding some issues with our ministry. Nothing too serious. We’ve just had some timing problems and behavior problems (with the kids not the teachers). We tend to slack sometimes in paying attention to the clock and enforcing the rules.

My parents began to help with this ministry about a year or so ago. I am thankful for them and was never the teenager that was embarrassed by their parents. I always wanted them around and they always have been. My mom’s response to the e-mail was simply, “You go girl.” I’m not exactly sure why she was cheering me on, but it made me smile. First of all, my mother just saying that makes me smile. My mother sending me an e-mail from “Comcast mobile” makes me smile. She’s more technologically advanced than I. Mostly though, it makes me smile to know that she was pleased by something I did.

What is it about getting approval from your parents? No matter how old I am it pleases me to know that my parents are proud of the person I have become. I want them to be proud of me. I never want to disappoint them. I want people to look at me and say, “J.L. and Charlene sure did a good job with their kids.” Hopefully that is the case, although I’m sure there are times when people look at me and say, “What in the world were J.L. and Charlene thinking?” See, in some ways, I am a reflection of my parents. I don’t want to embarrass them. I want to be a good representation of them so that others will think highly of them.

In the same way I am a reflection of the love of Christ. I want people to look at me and see my Dad because I think he’s pretty cool. He’s patient and kind and compassionate. More importantly though, I want people to look at me and see my Heavenly Father. He is loving and merciful and forgiving. Certainly I possess some physical and character traits of my biological parents. Hopefully I posses some character traits of my Heavenly Father as well. I want to look like Him. I want to act like Him. I want people to see love, mercy and forgiveness in me and in turn I want those traits to point to the One who gave them to me.

I strive to be a reflection of the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

If I keep that as my goal, one day when I finally meet my Father face to face, He will look at me with love and say, “You go girl.”