Big changes from my 7th grade year...

When I was in 7th grade:

1. NKOTB was the hit band

2. If girls dressed in a way that showed any cleavage or leg, they had a reputation. Things are different now as even kids who consider themselves "Christian" dress more revealing than those kids with "reputations".

3. Even the word "sex" was whispered and talked about with a blushed face. Kids now talk about sexual things openly.

4. There was a sense of privacy and boundaries that were commonly acknowledged. Myspace and other digital forms of communication cause for everyone to be open books.

5. When I was in 7th grade, I knew who the 7th graders were. Now kids are often mistaken as high schoolers or in some cases college students.

6. In 1990, tennis court baseball, street hockey, basketball after school, frisbee were all common place. The places where all these activities happened on a daily basis have completely grown up with weeds and broken pavement. Kids now spend all their available moments playing Halo 3, pretend games of tennis or Olympics in the virtual world. Real physical activity seems to be substituted for make believe.

7. There was a huge difference between kids in the country and kids in the city. Country kids were always snowmobiling, ATVing, running around on the farm. City kids were very different from that. Now they are all the same as all kids are immersed in the digital world.

8. Kids weren't as quickly medicated to keep them on par with the other kids.

9. Kids weren't labeled as quickly as they are now.

10. Clique's weren't as diverse. Now the diversity is great. Back then I think we had musicians, jocks and nerds. Now there are hundreds of forms of cliques.

pillow fights and sad kids

So tonight was our crazy "pillow fight" for middle school kids at a local gym- yeah good idea, huh?  65 kids with pillows with no regard for...anything.  It was great.  It's so important for middle school kids to "fit in".  That's why we host our annual "nerd prom" and pillow fight nights.  It actually encourages students to be goofy.  Leave your facade and pretention at the door...it's not needed.

The biggest kid got hit today with a pillow.  He's the class bully so it seems.  So guess what happens?  He cries.  The bully of the class is crying because he got hit with a fluffy pillow.  I sat down net to him to console him, but his tears turned to a deeply embittered anger.  For a second, I felt what many of those other kids probably feel on a daily basis around this kid- fear.  I honestly thought he was going to hit me.  One's initial reaction is to scold the kid or tell him to suck it up and get back in there, but I filed it away hoping for another chance to talk.  Well, after 64 kids and leaders leave, there is one kid left standing all alone in a t-shirt out in the frigid cold.  You guessed it- same kid.  His grandma forgot to pick him up.  Joe and I stayed with this kid until well over an hour past the night ended and then decided to drive him home.  We couldn't get a hold of anyone.  For the next 20 minutes, this 13 year old kid proceeds to  share his story relatively unprompted.  He hasn't seen his mother since he was 6.  Last he heard she's homeless on the streets of Cleveland.  She's been anorexic for years and has made no attempts to find her son.  He says he wonders about her, but new that when he was a kid, she was a prostitute and drug addict.  His father is jobless and mooches off the government.  Wants nothing to do with the son and rarely sees him.  His son allows him to recieve a free lunch occasionally.  

     

I asked this kid what he wanted to do when he got older.  Without hesitation he shared that he wants to be rich and famous.  Why?  He wants his family to have respect.  He wants to find his mother and buy her a house and buy his dad armani suits.  He wants to be able to provide for his grandmother and younger siblings.  

It's amazing.  I am going to pray for this kid.  I know where he lives now...in fact, as he walked away from my car he didn't even say goodbye or thank you.  Who teaches this boy manners, you know?  He walked right into the house he currently resides in with no key.  I guess the family finds Parma safe enough to raise 4 kids in a house that is always unlocked.  

My heart breaks for these kinds of kids.  I couldn't help but think about Christ's heart for kids like this kid.  This kid needs Christ, but I'm not so sure the church would do such a great job helping this kid see Him.  I don't mean that towards any one individual, but these kinds of kids make our church programs messy.  We need to create policies, procedures and parameters to keep this kid in line, but typically he won't line up with anything that we create, but this is the kid we need to reach.  

I may never run into this kid again.  

Just another day at the office.