From Sniffles to "Woo!"

My friend Chris Brauns, wrote today about the three most unstable substances known to man: weapons grade uranium, the San Andreas fault, and junior high girls.  Chris says, "I was a camp director when I formulated the first law of unstable substances.  I jotted it down on the back of a discarded Skittles wrapper while gaping at the mushroom cloud of a junior high social meltdown that made Chernobyl or Three Mile Island look like contained events."  (Read the rest here.)

As a camp counselor working for Chris, I can recall that week of junior high camp that he described vividly.  Upon entering my cabin one afternoon, I was greeted with the muffled sobs of not just a few, but every single girl in my cabin.  Rather than swimming or canoing or playing volley ball on this sunny afternoon, they were each on their bunks crying.  But, having been a junior high girl once, I knew just what to do.  I began marching around the room, pumping my arms in the air (choo choo train style) and chanting, "Amen!  Praise the Lord!  Glory Hallelujah!  Woo!"  Within seconds, every girl was off her bunk, chugging along behind me, giggling and chanting at the top of her lungs!

Yes, a middle school girl is an unstable substance in deed.  I'm learning this again, as today, my own sweet girl, Lindsay, is leaving the fifth grade nest.  But what a precious girl she is.  I took this picture yesterday of her reading Anne of Green Gables on the front porch.  (Just the title takes me back to fifth grade!) While Lindsay's mood can shift from sniffles to "Woo!" momentarily (and vice versa), her commitment to Jesus is unwavering and her passion for following his ways makes me want to go back and repeat middle school all over again.  (Well... maybe not.  See?  I still have some middle school blood in my veins!)