May 2020: "I believe it."
A STORY ABOUT “E”
E is 12 years old, and the first thing I noticed about him was that when he stands up he has to look down at me to meet my eye line. When we talk about the Bible, E is the one who asks the hard questions. When he’s on the basketball court, E’s the one who tries to get a game going. When he wants to win points for his class by being the cleanest table after snack-time, E’s the one delegating cleaning tasks to the other boys.
You always know when E is in the room, and you always know exactly what’s on his mind. Some days that makes him a leader, and some days that gets him in trouble. One day, when speaking exactly what was on his mind wasn't the most life-giving thing in the world, E and I had this conversation.
WORDS REVEAL OUR HEARTS
I told him about the verse “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” and how our words reveal a lot about what’s going on in our hearts. I asked him what he thought about that. E told me that there’s nothing good in his heart, and that he’s always going to be a person known for hurting others. I asked him if that’s what he wants to be known for – he said no. Then I asked him if he thinks I’m known for that – he said no again.
So, I told him about how when I was his age I spoke my mind a lot too; and that because I was angry about a lot of things, most of what came to my mind ended up hurting other people – even though that’s not the kind of person I really wanted to be. He said - “I can’t see you like that though. That’s just not who you are”, which was the perfect opportunity to say to him, “That’s not who you are either.”
E said he just couldn’t see how he could be known for anything different. I said, “E, I think that you are going to be known for kindness and thoughtful leadership. That’s what I see.” E looked at me, and said “Okay...but do you think that or do you believe it?” I asked him what the difference meant to him, and he said “Well, you can think something but still be questioning it; believing it means you’re all in.”
I said, “E, I believe it.”
Stories like this are why Forerunner Mentoring exists. We believe that when you have a relationship with Jesus and people who look like Jesus, lives are changed. We believe that every one of these kids were created on purpose for a purpose, and that they have endless potential to be Forerunners of positive change in the world around them.