Wanda let me come over to her house last night and debrief.  She was a very patient listening ear as I told her all about the middle school Know Sweat trip.  I confessed to her that I said some things over the course of the week that I am ashamed of; disheartening things, accusatory things, judgmental things, impatient things.  Her advice was oh-so-simple and fitting. She said, “Maybe you can start trying to think before you speak.”  It makes me laugh now, thinking that the thing that could have helped me was so elementary.  I guess that’s why mentors are so great.  They remind you of the truth.  (Which reminds me of Mike’s sermon on Sunday.)

After ignoring Lizzy’s quiet urging long enough, I finally got smart and went to her hair stylist at Regis.  If you saw the “before” picture, then you can attest to the fact that my hair cut was a “train wreck full of babies,” as Logan would say (although he didn’t say it about my hair).  Well, Lizzy’s stylist was named Lisa and she had magic fingers.  She took something awful and made it not awful.  She has my undying affection.

Tonight I feel tired, sun-kissed, and content.  I spent a lot of the day with students from the youth group, sometimes one-on-one and sometimes in a group.  All of the times I was within ten feet of a pool.  It’s really refreshing and invigorating to get to be doing ministry, listening and loving and getting to know people.  What a good day.