Right...that's why I do this

We had our Disciple Now weekend with Wicrest Baptist Church and Long Point (that's Bobby's new church) this weekend. God always does soemthing truly wonderful at these events and we are always excited to watch and be a part of it. I never want to leave my family and comforts of home to do retreats but am always glad that I do. This one was particularly hard since Reed had been gone all week and wasn't able to make it home in time before I had to leave. So at the last moment, Mom and Dad agreed to watch Evy and I had to drop her off there on Friday. (As it turned out, Reed wasn't able to leave Corpus Christi until 3 in the morning and had to pick up Evy by 9, so he slept in the car in front of my parents house for about 45 minutes!) Anyway, leading the youth group as I've been doing for a couple of months now has proved just as difficult as I knew it would be. To the point where I not only wanted out of the leadership position, but out of the ministry all together. But as the title suggests, God gave me one of those reminders of His grace being showered on others through my faithfulness to serve Him. On the last night I was able to have a really great talk with a couple of our middle school girls. I have been very blessed by their desire lately to really live in a way that pleases God. I was able to talk to them about how guilt is not from God - conviction that leads to confession and repentance, yes, guilt and condemnation, no. It was a wonderful honest conversation and I think it was what they really needed to hear. I prayed for them and...well, it was great.
Then, since God knew I needed more than that, later that night as we were heading for bed, one of the girls stopped me and gave me a hug. As she did she said that she didn't know what she would do without me and how I was someone she needed in her life as a Christian example. Wow. Thanks, Father, for giving me the gift of actually hearing how He's using me in exactly the way He meant for me to be used. Pretty amazing that He uses us at all, but that's the God we serve. And I'm glad to do so.