Why we love jr high kids

I feel like we could write an endless list of the reasons why we love jr highers. Don't get me wrong, I never want to go back to those awkward years, but the kids that we hang out with in the jr high ministry at church are pure gems.... there's really no other way to describe them.

Take for instance the other day when during Ed's talk we look over and there is a kid eating the edges of his paper. Not only that, he is licking the part where the jr high logo is - smearing the ink over the rest of the paper. Really?! The worst part is, Grant, his leader, said he is not the only one in his group that does this. That is seriously not ok.

Next, I was reminded in church on Sat night of how much I love this kid named Daniel. First, let me describe his wardrobe. Green turtle neck, with a blue jersey over top. Not too bad for a kid in 6th grade. Then, he is wearing mesh sport pants that are close to 5 inches above his ankle (definitely not a question if it is supposed to at capri length- either way it would not be ok), with tall black socks covering up what would be skin showing from the end of his pants to his shoes. Then, he had black shorts over top of his mesh pants. (is that really necessary?) Then, there is worship. When he sings, he raises his arms straight above his head (not out in front of him- straight up), and lets his hands droop down. If Dan and I can get a picture of him at some point we will post it.

Another kid- Brandon. There is this one song (Oh Happy Day) where we do this hand movement. Almost everyone does it, but Dan one day was standing next to Brandon and noticed he wasn't doing the hand motion, so Dan leaned over and asked him why he wasn't participating. Brandon responded "Are you kidding me? I have a reputation to uphold!" Seriously- in 6th grade?

Another great story of Brandon. Dan was giving this devo at our Superbowl party and started asking people to raise their hands if they play soccer, the piano, guitar, etc. for an illustration. Well, one of our 6th grade girls brought their younger brother who is about 5 years old and he was raising his hand for everything. Everyone knew he was probably exaggerating, but he's 5, so we cut him some slack. Brandon though, would have none of this. As soon as the 5 year old raised his hand saying he played the piano and that he was pretty good at it, Brandon starts yelling "He's lying, he's lying!!" Let's just say it was really hard to bring everyone back after an outburst like that in front of 30 kids. We'll keep you updated with other entertaining jr high stories.