"I think I am going to scream!"

So the other night at youth group we played a little Bible Jeopardy, where many questions were based off what we have studied in the last year. When someone chose "Past Lessons" for 300 and I asked for someone to recite the story of the Prodigal Son I was shocked when I got a room full of blank faces in return. This story had been talked about multiple times in my own Sunday School class, and probably a dozen other times in their childhood, but it wasn't ringing a bell.

Earlier that day in my high school class I had a freshman girl admit to me that she could only remember the story of Radshack, Meshack, and Abednego from VeggieTales.

Later that night I asked if anybody could tell me three key points from last month's series of lessons and nobody was able to get it right.

Have you ever had a moment like this? Have you ever wanted to cry (or at least reach for a bottle of aspirin) because you where so distraught by the fact that you work so hard to teach teens and at the end of the day it seems like you are just wasting oxygen? Sometimes working with teens is discouraging, and it's not uncommon to wonder if they are retaining anything.

The good news is your not alone. Even Jesus had problems with people not "getting it" (his own disciples particularly). Take some time and read through Matthew 16. You will see Jesus addressing religious leaders because they are smart enough to make advanced observations about the weather but not intelligent enough to see the big picture. You will see the disciples get confused about a lesson because they are too worried about snack time. You will even see Jesus calling Peter "Satan" because he is missing the point about Jesus' impending death. That's a lot of disappointment in one chapter, but there are also glimmers of hope. Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do you say the Son of Man is?" (Matthew 16:13), and Simeon Peter nailed it on the head by identifying Jesus as the Messiah.

I would encourage you today to remember that people will forget what you told them, get the wrong idea, or maybe not even hear what you said at all (It's easy for us to not "get it" when we are distracted by doubt, agenda, or our own failure), but there are many glorious times when we get the privilege of seeing students connect the dots and get the big picture of what God's up to.

I may have heard some disappointing answers last week, but I also saw some amazing kids repeat other truths from God's word that they wouldn't have been able to do if we hadn't been there to teach them.

Keep it up and you will see kids grow!