First impressions - Chloe

Tonight we are wrapping up from our third day in Denver, since the trip has started our group has met a lot of people. Every person I have met so far, I have formed opinions about. As we have gotten deeper and deeper into our trip, and time spent more and more time with the people around us I have realized that most of the opinions I first form are completely wrong. On the first day of our trip, we learned we had three other youth in our group. At that moment in time, I couldn't even deal with them. I was so annoyed that I couldn't imagine spending the rest of the week serving with them in our group. That night after going through club and group time I decided to pray, to ask God for advice on how to deal with these kids. I asked for him to show me a way to understand them, so instead of judging and being rude I could try to figure out the reasons they act the way they do.


On the second day, the youth were miraculously different. They were so much more behaved, and respectful. By the third day, our group was headed back to the church in the car and two of the three decided to share very important parts of their life's with me. One of the youth shared how his brother is autistic, and when he is home he always has to be a role model. After that it made sense to me that he was always so hyper, and why he always had outbursts. At home he isn't able to be a total kid because he has to be the best roll model he can for his little brother. The other youth told me about how a couple years back, his father committed suicide because of a serious panic attack. He wasn't very motivated to work most the trip, and he mostly just stood around. But then his actions were equivalent to his situation.


It honestly changed the whole way I looked at them. I realized they were how they were because of the struggles they had been through in their lives. God lead me to find reasons to change how I thought about the three, and I have never been more happy to have people like them in my life. It has changed the way I want to look at people. I want to know who they are before I judge them.


Once I get back home I hope to continue this outlook I have formed. I hope to be able to get to know people in my everyday life before I forget they are even people. I want to be at school, or church, or even the store and try to stop myself from judging people before I know who they are. I hope to live my life more like Jesus would have.