Curious George gets Alzheimer's

Sometimes I want to throttle my youth group kids. They can be loud, obnoxious, rude and just plain weird. However, yesterday reminded me why I started this mission.

There are three brothers in our group who Bob and I love dearly. In fact, Bob regularly tries to talk me into adopting the youngest one. These three are quite the handful. The oldest is graduating high school this year, and is going through some growing pains. He's funny and a really cool kid, but he has the attention span of a gnat, and so doesn't excell at school. The middle boy is 15 and has his learner's permit. Of the three boys he's the quietest and most introspective. Now don't get me wrong, he can still drive me up a wall sometimes, but he is a really sweet kid. Because he is a really good student, he gets some cool opportunities like spending this coming summer in Europe. The youngest of the three is quite a trip. He's in the 7th grade and is full of energy (I've contemplated drugging him a time or two!). He is in constant motion and has tons of questions about really random things. He thought the title of my dissertation was too complicated, so he decided I should change it to "Curious George gets Alzheimer's". When you get the three boys in a room together, they immediately begin picking at each other, but when push comes to shove, they would do anything for the others.

Yesterday morning, the three boys wander into my Sunday School class with gifts to congratulate me on my PhD. The oldest hands me an orchid (which I really do hope to keep alive), the middle one hands me a warm loaf of banana bread that he baked me that morning, and the youngest hands me a card from the three of them that he picked out. Of course I was touched by the gesture.

When I opened the card, they had each written me a short message. The youngest wrote: "Congrats on Curious George gets Alzheimer's. Good luck on getting the job in St. Louis so you don't have to move and you can be youth group leader." The middle one wrote: "Congrats on getting your PhD (If at all possible pleeeeease get a job in Belleville). The oldest wrote: "Awesome job! You're the cat's pajamas".

Later on, I told another of our youth group kids that I was going to be speaking in her 6th grade science class on Wednesday and that I would be at her school all day. Her first words to me were "Cool! Will you eat lunch with me!?"

I know that God has a plan in mind for me. I know he has the perfect job waiting for me, and I just need to be patient and wait for the door to open. I will go wherever he calls me, but I just can't imagine leaving these kids. It's days like yesterday that remind me how important our work is, and how much I really do love each one of them.