I find a great deal of joy in my volunteer work. I get to work with a number of long term and short term volunteers. Often times we get people who show up for just a couple hours and that is great. I appreciate their time. Sometimes we get people who don’t know what they are getting into or just don’t want to be there and thus have a bad attitude. I appreciate their time as well. I try not to differentiate which ones will serve me but just treat their time as valuable. Not true of everyone I work with as they will dismiss people just by their look. Recently this happened in the case of a young volunteer who was in elementary school and only signed up for a couple hours. Small and unassuming. My partners dismissed him as worthless. I had other ideas.
Matthew 10:30-31 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” We are valued by God. He even sent Jesus as a sacrifice. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” We are worth the life of the Son. Consider that for a moment. This is priceless. Jesus understood the value of individuals and was willing to die for each of us. His life reflected love for us. Jesus embraced everyone including children. I try to reflect this in the way I treat others.
How foolish it is to dismiss anyone as not worth it. I was determined to show this young person that he was valued. On this day we were planting so we set to our task. To my surprise, this young man proved himself energetic. We moved quickly and efficiently. I showed him how to plant. He taught me how to count to 59 in Spanish. We talked about our common interest in animals. It was a joy to work with this young man. I hope he had a great time and would want to volunteer more in the future. He left after a couple hours as I continued to plant. I grinned as I realized how blessed I was to have had the privilege of working with this nice young man. I was glad I did not dismiss his value. I hope to see him again.
Things my parents never taught me 
Absolutely! Everyone has something good to offer. It is there, we just need to see it. It takes vulnerability and patience to see.
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Temi … Thank you. Needed a little affirmation. Wondering if anyone can help me with the middle school age. Worked with a 14 year old male volunteer this week. Going into HS. I tried but a real struggle. Admittedly I was a mess at this age so I think that gets in the way. Any ideas?
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I work with children under 8. So, I do not know much about early teens. Psychologically, a 14 year old is functioning based on emotions than rational thinking. So, it is best to reach them emotionally than trying to engage in rational conversation.
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Interesting. I found one thing he seemed animated about. We chatted about that but then nothing. Maybe I need to do a better job of probing? Too many questions is bad though. He was definitely not interested in what we were doing for sure so I abandoned that fairly quickly.
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It is great that you noticed many things about him. That’s always helpful. 🙂 I have also found it very helpful to ask God to help me connect with my clients. It works.
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I do this often. That is I pray before and after many of my interactions. Maybe it would be better in the moment?
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I do not think it matters when it is done. It only matters that we pray about it and just trust God with the process.
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Agreed but I am also trying to figure out the whole pray without ceasing thing. Do you think it’s literal or just always be in that frame of mind?
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I believe praying without ceasing means we should live conscious of God’s presence with us which keeps us in a place of communion with God in our daily lives.
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This is so true. We are all valuable in the sight of God. Thank you for sharing.
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