I often find myself reflecting on my life, especially at the beginning of a new year. How am I spending my time? How much eternal impact am I having? Am I doing things that make a difference in the lives of others? Am I growing & becoming all God wants me to be? What priorities need shifting in my life?

Through reflection, I’ve realized that some of my most fulfilling moments have come from time spent with students. I’ve laughed, cried, prayed, worshiped with them, listened to them, and yes, I’ve even had some stressful moments because of them! But, I love them & my time with them is precious – it’s time well spent. But I still wrestle with questions & fears. How do I choose which students to spend the most time with? What does a healthy balance of office, student, & personal time look like? Is my time with them still valuable even if we never get to the spiritual stuff? What if I have trouble connecting with a student or what if I say the wrong thing? What happens when it gets messy & God calls me to coach a student through difficult life circumstances?

Amidst my own questions & fears, I have to ask myself…what’s the most important thing to students? And I think the answer to that is simple - being with them. We may have times when all we do is laugh at their inside jokes. We may have times when we never say a word, just listen. We may have times when the conversation seems meaningless. We may have times when we don’t know the right thing to say. But, there we are…being with them. And to them, that’s the most important thing. Of all the places in the world we could be, we chose to be with them. They know we care. They know we are not perfect. They know we need Christ. They watch when we are not looking. They hear even when we think words fall on deaf ears. And little by little they begin to imitate, as we do our best to imitate Christ.

God help us to invest our time well – life is short & we don’t want to miss an opportunity for kingdom impact. Thank you for the many high school students placed in our path. Help us be good stewards of the time given to us & help us invest well into the lives entrusted to us.

-Terry Ebers