Accidental Mentor/Model/Impressive Older Person

My intention was never to use this blog to blog on about my kids, but I am discovering that so much of what I learn and am shaped by is because of them. So here we go again.
Each summer we have about 3 youth interns here at Central. This summer they were all awesome - really great kids.

Different to the past years though, is that we also had a Worship Intern. Our Worship Minister left and moved before the summer and so short of using our people week in and week out until someone new came, we had to get creative. During the month of May we had an interim and then we came up with the idea of a young intern for the summer and beyond till we employed someone. His name is John Paul and today becomes an elementary music teacher in the Lubbock school system. John Paul has a beautiful voice - truly riveting to my ears. He is warm, so respectful and just an all round good guy. He had several duties while here and one was VBS. This is where my kids come in. They had seen him lead on Sunday a few times and seemed to like him enough, but then VBS hit and he rose to superstar status. He transformed the worship time at VBS into something incredible. He oozed energy and connection to kids. Every time we would go to the building to see David or work on something the kids would make their way to John Paul's office. They would find him after church. It made their month when he and his wife came over to dinner.

Here's the thing. I watch my kids become enamored by the youth interns, the worship intern, their teenage vbs crew leaders, their kids own worship small group leaders, etc etc and then it hits me how important our example is. It seems like a trite lesson but it is not. Bottom line, someone is looking to you to be their "hero" and sometimes you never know it. So far, my kids have not been let down....what a testament to the kind of interns, young adults and teens we are surrounded by. In fact, one of our families best friends is a family called the Kelleys. Their oldest son drives a Jeep and yesterday my 4 year old said, "when I grow up, I want to get a Jeep so I can match Barry." Pretty cool!

Now, I am left with the commission to begin teaching my 9 year old daughter about how she treats the 4 and 5 year old little people who look to her as the "big kid."