As many of you already know, I am currently working with children that have emotional and/or behavioral problems. During the day I supervise therapeutic support staff (wrap-arounds) in several of the surrounding school districts, and do family counseling in the evenings. Currently I work with 12 children and their families. Behaviors can be anything from daily physical aggression, running away, uncontrollable emotional breakdowns, etc, etc, etc. It was a little overwhelming when I started as my Masters in Pastoral Counseling focused on adult issues, marriage, finances, spiritual issues, etc --- and I learned very little about counseling children.
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The beginning of January I was getting a little frustrated being around kids making bad choices and falling into bad habits over and over again. To make matters worse, I did some research on the type of work I do, and study after study came back to the conclusion that pretty much says "it doesn't work" and no matter what I did was not going to be of much benefit to these kids or their families.
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That wasn't good enough --- I began to pray God would help me with these families to really make a difference. Driving to work one day a song came on the radio that really changed my perspective on how I approached these children and their families. The song is called "Give Me Your Eyes" and it's a prayer for God to allow you to see people the way He sees them. Some of the lyrics are:
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All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared?
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I've been missing
Give me your eyes for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see...
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Since that has become my daily focus and prayer (trying to see people the way God sees them), I have seen an incredible difference! Every kid I have right now loves working with me (because they know I don't look at them as the "bad kid" or the "messed up kid" that everyone else sees). For some of these kids I am the only one they will talk to. Just last week I discharged 3 kids because of the incredible progress they had made in just the past 2 months (and 5 more are very close and will be discharged in the next month or two!). It is also being noticed by our other Master's level counselors and psychologist as I was asked to do a training on building relationships for all our staff later this year. All from someone who really doesn't know much about counseling kids --- but God does!
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Here is the song...hope you make it your prayer too!
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The beginning of January I was getting a little frustrated being around kids making bad choices and falling into bad habits over and over again. To make matters worse, I did some research on the type of work I do, and study after study came back to the conclusion that pretty much says "it doesn't work" and no matter what I did was not going to be of much benefit to these kids or their families.
-
That wasn't good enough --- I began to pray God would help me with these families to really make a difference. Driving to work one day a song came on the radio that really changed my perspective on how I approached these children and their families. The song is called "Give Me Your Eyes" and it's a prayer for God to allow you to see people the way He sees them. Some of the lyrics are:
-
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared?
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I've been missing
Give me your eyes for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see...
-
Since that has become my daily focus and prayer (trying to see people the way God sees them), I have seen an incredible difference! Every kid I have right now loves working with me (because they know I don't look at them as the "bad kid" or the "messed up kid" that everyone else sees). For some of these kids I am the only one they will talk to. Just last week I discharged 3 kids because of the incredible progress they had made in just the past 2 months (and 5 more are very close and will be discharged in the next month or two!). It is also being noticed by our other Master's level counselors and psychologist as I was asked to do a training on building relationships for all our staff later this year. All from someone who really doesn't know much about counseling kids --- but God does!
-
Here is the song...hope you make it your prayer too!
