As Clear as Cristal

As Clear as Cristal

                I witnessed something yesterday that has my attention. I have known about my wife’s desire to help young women. I got a glimpse of this the spring semester the last school year when she had the opportunity to teach leadership to four classes at a middle school here in the Rio Grande Valley. She took all of the stand out leaders. The good ones, on the honor roll and heading to college and those who lead in the other direction, disrupting the class and skipping school and put them all together.

                She developed her curriculum and challenged them with assignments in their presentation skills and collaborative projects. She was highly stimulated every day when she came home. They challenged her but she dealt with it. Then the very last class, one of her most challenging students gave his speech about baseball and credited one of the other students in the class for helping him to be better. This one boy who didn’t have the outward appearance of a leader actually captured the essence of the John Maxwell style of leadership which is to push other people up.

                Now when my wife told me that there was a young girl whose mother had died and she was being put out of the place where she was living, I had an idea of what to expect because my mom used to take in kids whose parents would put them out. My wife rearranged the extra bedroom and tidied up the house but she had a vibrant energy about her anticipating this new member of our house hold. When the girl came over with her boyfriend I could feel her uncertainty, she was lost but Janice was so ready to help her, she was sitting on the edge of her seat. She asked the girl about her family situation and she said that her mother recently died and that her father let her alone. She had an aunt in mid-valley but wasn’t willing to take her into her home.

                Then her boyfriend announced that even though they were thankful for the offer of support to house his girlfriend, they had it covered. Janice questioned whether that would be a good idea and she showed the girl the extra bedroom and asked her what she wanted to do but she really didn’t have an answer. She is in a place where her life is being tossed around by her circumstances. Her boyfriend is a faithful young man but they are playing with fire living under the same roof. Janice is going to keep the invitation open for her to come back but I could see the distinct contrast of her excitement and enthusiasm to help this girl and the letdown after they didn’t take her up on it. I know I have to do whatever it takes for her to be in that place where she can help all of the young girls she can.

                It is like other women I know like her friend Luisa so committed to help dogs or others who foster cats. There is a drive and commitment deep inside of her to create an atmosphere of comfort and safety but unlike someone fostering pets she wants to give them life skills to help them break the cycle in their lives but also their linage. I have dropped all of my ambitions of achievement other than to support her and to ignite in men, young and old to be bold and realize that they have strength enough to make a way in this world. I am learning, myself that with the Lord’s help they can have even more power. There is more to being a man than the physical but it doesn’t make sense to let your body get run down any earlier than it should. If I can get young men to understand that they can be strong physically and in character that they can have an impact on the world that they can’t imagine.

                There is a pattern for the type of men who become Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, Rangers and Force recon Marines. They usually come from broken homes, they get involved in individual sports like wrestling, boxing and martial arts. They gravitate towards those men who are the image they see in the media of muscular tough guys. Those who make it have a coach or a mentor who they actually hold in higher respect than the instructors in training who are always trying to trip them up and intimidate them. It might be a coach or a teacher. They are teachable and because their desire to be recognized as the kind of man who is respected. They will do whatever it takes to live up to that image.

                I hope to be that kind of a man that the young men I influence wouldn’t just leave their children to fend for themselves. I know that the Lord put me with this special woman to make a difference with these kids. I am grateful beyond words to be with her.