Ten Reasons I Love Being a Youth Minister’s Wife

1. It is exciting to see the youth grow and mature in Christ throughout the years. Every year graduation comes to soon! The first 6th grade class we had graduated this past Spring.
2. It is extremely rewarding to have relationships with teens.
3. It brings me such joy to see God working in their lives. I learn so much from them!
4. I get to see Wes at work (I should really say God at work in Wes) all the time and the girls get to be part of their Daddy’s work.
5. I love having the teens in our home for devotionals, games, and snacks.
6. My girls have wonderful Christian examples who love them dearly. Avery and Abby love the “big kids” too.
7. My family and I get to plan and do lots of FUN stuff!
8. Teens are rarely boring to be around. They keep me laughing.
9. Having girls over for girlie movies, snacks, and fun games never gets old.
10. Teens keep you looking, acting, and dressing young.

We had a high school retreat this past weekend which went great! The girls got to go to Nana and Paw Paw’s house where they had a blast as usual. The theme was “Loving the Unlovely” something we all need to be reminded of. The youth ministers and teens had many good things to share and our guys did a terrific job leading the Sunday morning service all by themselves. I was proud of them!
I know I said that working with the youth keeps you young, but I was made aware this weekend that I am getting older. Wes keeps reminding me and everyone else that I am turning 30 next month. He is only 4 ½ months behind me but he still looks about 16 years old. He got carded the other day when he tried to buy a rated R movie. Ha! Anyways at the retreat the campfire seemed to be a lot farther away then I remembered it. Also, a few girls decided to wake up at 5:30 the first morning to get ready for an 8:30 breakfast. They were showering, blow drying their hair, straightening their hair, talking and laughing with now care in the world to the majority of us who aim to get up as late as possible. Then at 6:30 while the lights were still off and most girls were still sleeping (lucky them!) one of the girls slipped off the bunk bed ladder falling on her back on the hard cement floor letting out some scary moans. Another sponsor and I rushed to her. At first she wasn’t moving and barely talking. I rushed to get her youth minister fearing that we would be calling 911 soon. Thankfully she started moving some more and was just extremely soar the rest of the retreat. She sure gave everyone an awful scare. With only 5 hours of sleep, I longed for those days in college when I could function quite well on little sleep. Seriously though, who gets up 3 hours early to get ready for a retreat? The girls were from another youth group that went with us. I am glad my girls are a lot less maintenance. The next night before I turned the lights out I told them that they weren’t allowed up before 7:15. I have never had to do this before, but most of the other girls thanked me.
It did make me feel better when I was complimenting a high school boy from another youth group about his ACU T-shirt. I asked if he planned to go to college at ACU and where he was from. We talked for a little bit and then he asked where I was from. I told him where I was from and that I was Wes’ wife. He got a little embarrassed and said he thought I was a teen.

Here are some pictures from this weekend...

The Park Avenue Gang!


You all crack me up!


The "band" singing Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Wes, the "wanna-be" keyboard player for the band.


Trying to choke Heath with his tie.


Okay, I guess I am getting older...
I taught these girls when they were in the 4th grade,
and now they are sophomores.