Middle School Mindset

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I have a confession to make.  Before starting my role as an area representative with Loudoun FCA, I didn’t really care for middle schoolers that much.  They’re kind of moody, crazy energetic, a bit annoying, and sometimes smelly.  But over the past year, I’ve also learned that they’re hilarious and passionate and make for some amazing FCA huddle leaders! 
Brambleton Middle is a brand new school in Loudoun this year.  We have four girls serving as huddle leaders there right now, three seventh graders and one eighth grader. Most of these girls were somewhat reluctant leaders at first.  They’re a bit timid but really wanted their school to have a huddle, so they stepped up.  At our first huddle of the school year, back in September, we had seven kids including the four leaders.  But the numbers have been growing steadily each week as one or two more kids invite friends and at yesterday’s huddle, we had eighteen students gathering for a snack of bacon and chocolate chip cookies (Rock Star parent volunteer at this school!), games (Wachichi and basketball) and a devotion on 1 Samuel 16:1-13.  The key verse in the passage is verse 7, “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For the LORD sees not as a man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’” 
The devotion was led by Ella, one of the seventh graders, and although she tends to be on the shy side, it has been so cool to watch her confidence grow this year as she has stepped into the leadership role.  At our leader meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Ella is the one who came up with the topic for yesterday’s huddle on looks.  Seriously, if you want to know what’s going on in a middle schooler’s life, you just have to listen for a bit.  They’ll share what their dealing with at school in one way or another.  At the end of the devotion, Olivia, another seventh grader, closed in prayer asking that God would help them all to not judge people for what they looked like but instead to really get to know people.  Considering how hard middle school can be, I love that these leaders chose to focus on something so relevant for themselves and their peers.  

I’ll be honest, I was skeptical when I started this job about whether or not a middle school student could truly lead a huddle.  And while middle schoolers might take a little more work to get organized than my high school leaders, they’re also so much more authentic in the topics they choose to talk about.  Maybe we should all be a little more like middle schoolers…  

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