Katie's prayer: Amy Grant's "Takes a Little Time"

Well it may not be over by morning
Rome wasn’t built in a day
Takes a little time, sometimes
So baby give it time

It is so easy for me to get frustrated with my job, and I’m slowly realizing why. The youth group I attended when I was teen and the youth group I helped at while in college were both established youth groups. They had been there for many many years and going was the cool thing to do. Therefore, events were attended by many people, the number of volunteers was high. And that’s what I’m expecting of this youth group. I’m expecting lots of teens to come and lots of people wanting to volunteer. And, sadly, that’s not what’s happening. What’s happening is that I have 2 volunteers who can come to maybe 3 events a semester, a couple of parents who are more than willing to drive here and there, and events that have roughly 10 teens if it’s a social and anywhere from 0-2 teens if it’s an educational event. This past Sunday was the first one with zero. It’s tough. And no matter how much I tell myself that it’s not about me, it’s hard to really internalize that.

But listening to today’s song, and some encouraging words from others, I’m slowly realizing that there are many things working against me, and my expectations are a little off for where we are right now. Before me, there was no youth group. There was a 2 year Confirmation program, then pretty much nothing. Maybe an event or two a year. So strike one: the teens aren’t used to going to events, they don’t have this in their schedule. Strike two: half the teens have been getting Educational nights through Confirmation classes. The freshmen and sophomores have had Confirmation classes twice a month. They are already getting in their education and have busy lives and thus no time for youth group. And finally strike three: before I came there was nothing, so the teens turned to Young Life. A Christian based youth group thing. They are getting in educational and social in a place that has, I’m sure, way more teens. Sadly, I can’t get way more teens if they don’t come. Three strikes I’m out. And I can try and try and try to fix some of these problems, but as today’s song says, sometimes things like this just need time.