Megan's prayer: Jars of Clay's "I'm Alright"

I'm alright...

I say this so often. When I'm having a bad day, I'll tell others "I'm alright." When I'm having a great day, I'll tell others "I'm alright." I don't know why I'm so secretive. It's like I'm either trying to hold in the bad so that I don't bring others down, or I'm trying to keep all of my happiness for myself cause I'm too selfish to share it.

I think God just wants us to be honest with him. He knows it all anyways. But being able to pray to God, to really tell him what's going on, to fight with him, or just share my pure joy with him... Being myself, 100%, is what will help me grow to have a deeper relationship with my God.

Jen's prayer: Jars of Clay's "I'm alright"

And I can't see the view from the eyes you look at me through

Which is unfortunate, because I'd really like to be able to see through God's eyes right now. I'm not alright. I need some clarity on what God is wanting in my life right now. And that is simply my prayer tonight:

Let me see through your eyes, Father. Give me clarity.

Chris' prayer: Jars of Clay's "I'm Alright"

I've never been the saint you wanted me to turn to

One of the things I struggle with the most as a youth minister is when teens don't buy into what is going on, when they don't invest themselves into the event or activity. The other night, for instance, we were having open gym and playing dodgeball when some of the upperclassmen decided that goofing off and playing dodgeball was beneath them. In fact, they would rather not even be there than sit and watch what was going on, leaving me and the underclassmen. As they left, one of them looked at me, and gave me this glance that said, "Heh. Have fun with whatever that is, going on over there." They wanted no part of it.

It bothers me because buying into what is going on is so important for the benefit of everyone. If these upperclassmen think it is okay to be too good for an activity, then they are showing tomorrow's upperclassmen that they can be, too. But if everyone buys into what we're doing, we can all have fun.

It is these times when I have to remind myself that these teens are who they are. They aren't who I want them to be, or who I expect them to be, or who I'd like them to be. They are who they are and they will do the things they do. Sometimes, their choices may disappoint me, but they are their choices, and sometimes they aren't going to make the mature, responsible, good-for-everyone choice.

And I can't see the view from the eyes you look at me through

And once I'm able to remind myself that they are who they are- that is, that they are a child of God- I can get back to loving them for who they are. I can return to looking at them through the eyes of Jesus, who loves them without fail.


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Katie's prayer: Jars of Clay's "I'm Alright"

"I'm alright." It's a phrase I use quite often. To some people, it's a positive answer, not for me. It's not quite negative, but definitely more negative than positive. It's the type of thing you say when someone asks you how you are and things suck but you don't want to explain why, or you don't want people to know about the suckiness, so you say "I'm alright." And even though that's the real meaning behind that phrase when I say it, I somehow trick myself into thinking things really are ok, just by saying that. Does that make sense? In trying to hide the sucky parts of my life from others, I also hide it from myself. I begin to think things are ok, that yeah, this part of my life may not be so great, I may not like this part, but it's ok, that's how it's supposed to be, it's ok that this isn't perfect. I don't really need to try and fix this part of me.

I could be so foolish thinkin' I'm alright.

Within this past week, actually, I began to work on that. Working on telling myself "even though I say it's alright, it's not." What a great song to come along at the end of the week to remind me to keep it up throughout the weekend!