• For being 39 and loving to hang with teenagers.
• For giving a student a hug, it might be the only hug they get all day.
• For pursing a career in something your parents think is a stepping stone.
• For giving up another career for something most adults don’t get.
• For loving a job that your boss might look down on.
• For being bored during the diving part of a swim meet.
• For going to a soccer game simply to say hi and show your support for someone who isn’t your kid.
• For liking how bad a freshmen jazz band sounds.
• For texting info about tomorrows Bible study during staff meeting.
• For being more comfortable driving a church van than your minivan.
• For asking for more budget to cover the rental of sumo costumes
• Or for losing the receipt for the sumo costumes.
• For knowing exactly how much cash and time it takes to get 15 pizzas delivered.
• For knowing that one large pizza feeds about 5 teenagers.
• For practicing games on the XBox during office hours.
• For bringing your kids on the camping trip for free.
• For reusing a killer illustration over and over and over again.
• For feeling weird when the senior pastor rips off your killer illustration in his sermon.
• For being there when all hell breaks loose.
• For being a little thankful that hell has broken loose because you know God will use it.
• For asking hard questions to discover harder truths.
• For challenging boys to become men.
• For challenging moms and dads to let go of their dreams for their kids so their kids can have dreams of their own.
• For representing Christ in places no one wants him represented.
• For challenging other leaders to think differently about teenagers.
• For challenging teenagers to think differently about themselves.
• For asking students to skip band camp for Bible camp.
• For keeping the door open when a member of the opposite sex is in your office.
• For asking the secretary to skip her lunch so you aren’t in the church alone with a student.
• For trying things that are new.
• For giving up on things that don’t work.
• For always believing that people can change.
• For reaching the wrong kids.
• For reaching kids like me.

Never apologize for being a youth worker. We need you too much. 

You don’t hear it enough. Thanks for serving today’s students. Thanks for investing your life in people the church all-too-often misses. Thanks for reaching kids like me. And thanks for putting up with the stuff you put up with just to keep going.