Tomorrows Leaders

When I was growing up one of the things we heard in school was that we would be “the leaders of tomorrow”. I never really believed that, but now I see that it’s true.

Knowing that, we adults ought to try to have as much influence on kids as we can. That’s not hard for me because I love kids. Some people say it’s because I never really grew up. I don’t know about that but I do know this, that if you will just give a kid a little bit of your attention it will go a long way. I know something else as well… it’s relatively easy to create unforgettable memories for kids. In fact, with my nephews I’ve made it my business to create those memories for them. Nearly every summer we have “Uncle Rob camp”. We hunt, we fish, we set out the crab trap, we go horse back riding and Aunt Julie prepares good meals for them. Of course I also work them a little bit; we build fence, work at the clinic and the like. They enjoy the play and the work.

In the course of that kind of interaction, I also take the opportunity to admonish them when I see behaviors that I don’t like. I hope I’m making a difference with them.

About a year ago I started wondering if I could help kids who weren’t church or family kids. I heard about the Big Brother/Big Sister program and looked up the local office. After they did a background check on me they approved me to be a “Big Brother”. It took them almost a year to find a kid on our end of town that I could mentor. In fact, it had been so long that when they finally called me I tried to back out and started making excuses… but then I caught myself and agreed to do it.

Who knows what impact you could have on a kid’s life? He might be a first grader whose dad is in prison and whose mom’s boyfriend is in Iraq. He might be a kid who had to repeat the first grade because he has trouble with reading and math. It just might be that you could help a kid like that and he could turn into one of tomorrow’s leaders or even more importantly a leader for Christ. Who knows?