compliments to boost my week

I got the nicest compliment a week ago. It was left on my answering machine (do people still have those, or is it just me?) so I could've saved it to listen to again to boost my confidence or used it as leverage later (*snicker*) ...had I wanted to. It was from our friendly neighbourhood youth pastor (yes, he calls himself that!), mentioning how they were less a leader for Small Group that evening. His message went something like this: "Kiersten is sick and won't be able to make it tonight. So Kim and I were thinking of who was the coolest junior high mom and we thought of you!"

The Coolest Junior High Mom.

Oh yes.

That's me.

I did note that he did specify, "Junior High" and not  "all of the whole youth group moms", but that's okay. I also did note that he was asking me if I'd be willing to fill in for a position that was needed in just three hours.

He laughed when I talked to him and said, "I could just be saying that or I could be telling the truth! After all, you were the only mom out there night sliding with the youth!"

I grinned. That's true. I did. This past summer, for the second year in a row, I bravely donned a bathing suit and put myself in front of many peers and hundreds of teenagers as we went to Cultus Lake Waterpark for their Youth Night Sliding Event. I decided that I wasn't going to think about my overweight body that looked almost-middle-aged, and just go and have fun and feel young again! And I had a blast! Just our youth pastor and I went out with our youth on the slides; the others parent-leaders sat together and chatted. (sliding seemed more fun to me, since I was paying the entrance fee anyways. Besides I suck at small talk with people I don't know well.)

The Coolest Junior High Mom.

It's a silly title and doesn't really mean anything, and maybe I shouldn't take it to heart or take great happiness from it, but I do. God knew I needed to hear it and it made my week.