Our greatest teacher

These thoughts have been quite strong over the past couple of weeks, as I have been working on a couple of projects that are stretching my skills, and in some cases, placing me in areas where my education is limited. What has helped me work through these projects are things that I learned growing up, lessong that taught me not to be afraid to tackle jobs, get my hands dirty, or take a risk. Knowing that I could make a mistake and if a mistake was made it could be corrected. Being given these opportunities has truly helped me over the years.

In a past column, I spoke about hand holding and finger pointing. When we work with our young people there are times that we need to hold their hand and help them along. But there are also times when we need to point a finger -- simply giving them a direction to go and then letting them go and experience it. This, I believe, is how I was raised. And because of this, I am able to, at the age of 50, use these lessons of life, and work through things that I probably couldn’t have if I had not been given these opportunities.

From simple things, like learning how to paint, to hitting the propane tank when I couldn’t get the clutch on the tractor engaged. I still remember jumping out of the pickup to turn the cow, not getting it shifted into park and watching it run through the fence. The bottom line is that all of these things were lessons learned. And I have been blessed with each lesson.

My oldest daughter recently has experienced something along the same line. A couple of weeks ago, her car caught on fire and was totalled. So she has had to deal with insurance, rental cars, the process of looking for another car and purchasing a car, all before the age of 21. This has been somewhat stressful for her, and I have given her some advice, but for the most part she has done this on her own. I can only believe that as she gets older, this experience will help her handle many other tough things that will happen in her life.

As I look at these summer months, and the busy lives of each of our young people. I believe that we can use this time to help each of them learn things that will help them years down the road. Together we can help life, and life’s experiences be their greatest teacher.

Thank you for giving to our youth in the way you do.

Remember

As I look back on it, I must say that I enjoyed it, but during the month itself, I can say that it was one of the most stressful that I have experienced in quite some time.

So, as we enter this month of July, I am thankful June is over and that life has began to slow down just a little.

It is hard to believe that as you read this column, I am nearing the end of my twelfth year with the diocese. It is hard to believe that I have experienced so many youth and events over this short time.

June was no different, as we completed another round of camps and we have begun our "Summers Centered In Christ" program in parishes.

But again, June was one of those months where many things seemed to overwhelm me. For the first time in these twelve years, I felt that my ministry was actually keeping me from my family. So much time was being given to my ministry that I was unable to give quality time to my family. This too added to my stress.

But as I write this column and think back over all of the stressful times, I can also remember the number of times that someone reminded me to remember who is really in charge. Several people spoke these words to me during some of the most stressful times, and each time, I realized that Christ was speaking to me through that person.

So, as I traveled to our fifth- and sixth- grade camp this past week, I finally realized that I had to slow down and not spend the week trying to cover every base. I decided to stay in one spot at camp, and let the other issues wait for another day. It took until Wednesday evening of camp -- and many self-reminders that God is the one in charge -- to finally calm myself and move back into a more stable frame of mind, but I finally did it.

And I thank God for this gift.

As overwhelmed as I was this past month, I know too, that there are many times in the lives of our young people that they can feel overwhelmed themselves. I saw some of this even in our fifth and sixth grade campers.

So I conclude this column as I have many others. Can we take these next two months of summer and in some special way, continue to send a message to our youth, reminding them of who is really in charge? Can we continue to be, in some special way, Christ to them during the difficult times?

Thank you for giving in the way you do.