They Know

I’ve been volunteering in student ministries for not quite a year now, and it’s been one of the greatest things I’ve done. I absolutely love working with these students. They’re like my little brothers and sisters, and I want nothing but the best for them.

So I would like to throw out a few words of advice or those interested in working with students:

They know when you’re not being serious, when you’re not taking them seriously, when you blow them off, and when you don’t care.

I think we as adults sometimes forget, or we think that students won’t catch on because they’re students. But we all know we hate when someone blows us off, or we can tell we’re not being taken seriously. And if you’re anything like me, you just get upset. In my life, I would rather the person not be there than just patronize me, or throw out some catchy phrase like “Just pray about it.” That’s just avoiding the situation and not wanting to deal with it. In most cases, I’m already praying.

Students aren’t any different. They can pick up on these things clear as day, and it instantly lowers your credibility with all of them, because they’re no different that anyone else. They’ll tell their friends about it. Granted, we all do this from time to time, and none of us are perfect, so we all make mistakes. I’m just reminded as I sit here and write this post that I need to make sure I stay on guard and try to prevent that from happening as much as possible.

How do you remind yourself not to blow people off?

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