adventures in speaking to middle schoolers::11/06

I had two interesting moments in speaking to middle schoolers recently-


the first happened on sunday morning. we were talking about standing up for what’s right and I was giving situations where students would have to make a choice between standing up for what is right or going along with a crowd of friends. I was going off notes a bit and said, “or what about this: say like a friend comes up to you and says, “hey- I’ve got a substance that is illegal for people our age, but it makes me feel really funny- what do you think? would you like to have some with me?” “what would you do?” I asked. one boy in the back yelled out, “NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT ROB!” normally I would have given him some sort of warning, but he had a good point. I couldn’t help but stop and laugh.


another funny moment happened just today-
I was over at a local middle school, doing a bible study during lunch, and a gal came by that I had never met. at least I thought she was a gal, I wasn’t sure. she could have passed for a boy with her short haircut and her boy clothes. we were talking and she said, “wait! I want to see if my girlfriend wants to come!” I thought- oh- he’s a boy.”
then we got into the club and I started chatting about the election and what everyone thought, and this new friend said, “I’m really mad about prop 8! that means I can never get married!” I was a little stuck. I didn’t have a response. someone shouted out something about obama and I kept rolling with that. we talked about depression and sadness and I asked, “what makes a middle schooler sad?” and three gals shouted out in unison: ”BOYS!” i responded with, “sure- the opposite sex can make us feel sad sometimes…” and then I started thinking about my new friend- should I qualify that statement by saying, “or the same-sex…”? was I excluding her with my language? again, I just kept moving. I don’t think I’ve ever been n a situation like that where I had a middle school student who was openly stating that they were gay in one of my meetings. I was caught a little off-guard. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t treat her differently or single her out. I wanted to make sure that she had the same voice as the other students in the room. I wonder how I will handle that when it happens again- because I have a feeling that I will encounter this more and more in the future. I was really excited about our subject matter, because everyone feels sadness and depression at times- no matter what their background is. and everyone should know that God listens when we are sad and that He is a safe outlet for our emotions. so hopefully this gal was able to walk away encouraged to interact with God through prayer.