They are not my kids but I felt like a proud parent as I sat in the front row and took a video of “A” and “C” reciting their Bible verses.<\/p>\n
I’ve been the Sunday School teacher of these kids on and off over the last 5 years. As I watch them share what the Bible meant to them, I felt a rush of pride and tears welled up in my eyes as I see how much they’ve matured.It gave me a deep sense of satisfaction to know that I am a part of the lives of these children.<\/p>\n
I’ve also experienced the thrill of giving workshops where participants came up afterwards to thank me for influencing them. To have been a part in their lives, only for a couple of hours, gave me a sense of satisfaction as well.<\/p>\n
But investing in someone’s life for 5 years is different than having an influence on someone in a 2-hour workshop. It takes a lot more to develop a relationship with someone over a long period of time, to be there when they need you, to go through seasons of life together. It takes commitment, sacrifice, resources, and most of all, being real.<\/p>\n
What I mean by that is, in a one-shot workshop, I can be\u00c2\u00a0 dynamic, I can be funny, I can appear to be loving and kind and compassionate. I can look good and people like me. But they don’t really know the real me.<\/p>\n
With people that I am in a relationship with for several years, we see each other’s good, bad and ugly. They see me when I’m down, and grouchy, and at my worst. I open myself to being vulnerable. Yet, that investment of deeper relationships pays off to give greater satisfaction.<\/p>\n
People think that this kind of community and relationship only happens with your peers. But it can happen intergenerationally if you give it a chance. I experienced it with “A” and “C” who are in elementary school. I thank God for our little church family of all ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They are not my kids but I felt like a proud parent as I sat in the front row and took a video of “A” and “C” reciting their Bible verses. I’ve been the Sunday School teacher of these kids on and off over the last 5 years. As I watch them share what the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts-on-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}