Never Go Through An Old Box Of Photos

A couple of days ago, I discovered a box of photographs from my 16 years of youth ministry...

Included in the find were photographs of this year's graduating class at their very first youth-group thing when they were in 6th grade. Never a good find when you're preparing a sermon in which they are the illustrations.

I also saw a succession of prom photographs in which the teens would all come over before their senior prom to show us what they looked like all dressed up (which, when you think about it, is a fantastic tribute to a youth minister)...and the photographs progressively contain numerically more people in them each year, too. Some of those kids in the pictures work for me now.

Today, the first set of prom kids gets here at 5PM. Flower Mound, the next group of prom kids, will be coming in two weeks...

But never go through an old box of photos when those "traditional" things are coming up. Go through them when more emotional distance is in between.

I really love my teenagers.