Vindicated, Sort Of

It's no surprise or shocking at all when I say that I love my kids. I'm talking about not only the three that I birthed, but the 20something that come to our youth group. I treat them all like I treat my own kids. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not so much. It dependes on the situation.

It's also no secret or surprise that our new youth director and I don't get along. He seems to think the volunteers are there to undermine him. We're not. We aren't his employees to hire or fire or reprimand, either. We're there for the kids, not him. But we are willing to help him because it helps the kids. But we aren't sheeple that follow along, either. That's where the issues started, at least for me.

After our last youth council meeting, I wrote an email stating some objections to some things that were happening that I didn't feel comfortable with. People tend to forget that most of our kids have been through the confirmation process at our church. At the end of the process, they became full members of the church. They deserve, and rightfully so, to be treated as such and not as a bunch of kids that don't know their heads from their asses. They may not know, but they don't deserve to be treated that way. In response to my email, I was called silly and discontent. Wow, you dumb ass. That means that you didn't read the email, you picked out what you wanted from it and attacked me personally. You know I didn't sit still for long, but at least I didn't attack him personally or his character. I could have...

Sunday was a little discombobulating for me. First time to see him since the email. I wanted to beat him, but I refrained. I actually just didn't speak to him. I walked around him, I kept my mouth shut (shocker) and my head down (even bigger shocker). But what came out of his mouth was the biggest shocker of all. He stood up in front of all those kids and basically changed his stance to mine. What?!? You're asking them instead of telling them? You're asking them to pray about their roles instead of demanding they take one? You could have knocked me over with a feather.

The next shocker was that he gave credit to another volunteer for the change in his opinion. At this point, I don't care. He did the right thing. He also gave credit to the youth council. The youth council consists of the adult volunteers and the youth that have volunteered to represent their peers. It was a very confusing night for me.

So, I was right (duh). I think he couldn't quite admit that. It's alright. One day he'll see me for the genius I am. Keep up, man, keep up.