June 11, 2014

6th Grade Retreat

Each year, I am invited to speak at the 6th grade retreat at St. Christopher's School in Nashua.  They have a full day of events as they prepare for their graduation and I was asked to speak for an hour today on friends and trust.  We began with a twist on the Newlywed Game where I had friends come up and see if they knew each other well.  The first question I asked was name your friend's favorite TV show.  Interestingly, none of them really had one or seem to watch much TV.  I also asked them to name their friend's favorite food.

After, I spoke of my evolving friendships over the years and the things that I valued or cared about.  I talked about how I bought a coat once just to make a friend jealous!  Yikes.  The point I was trying to make was that when we are young, we care about things like image, popularity, etc. and we try to be who we are not.  But as we grow, we realize that we need to be true to ourselves, be who we are, and not worry about what others think of us.  I said, in a sense, you have to "let it go" which segued in me playing the song "Let It Go" from "Frozen."  All of the girls sang along (the boys were groaning!) and one even got up and reenacted the scene from the movie while singing it, it was impressive.

I then moved into trust and how if we trust God and His ways, we in a sense are rewarded.  I spoke of how I am so blessed with a wonderful wife, three children, and a job I love.  Despite the fact that I don't make a lot of money or will never have a fancy car or a vacation home, I have never been happier.

We concluded with a brief prayer service praying from Proverbs 19 and listening to a song called "Safe."  Tomorrow the students have their annual awards lunch and I will be honored to attend.  The students graduate on Friday and all but a handful are going to Nashua Catholic Junior High School.

I am grateful to Ms. Wefers and Ms. Emond for having me today, I always love visiting St. Christopher's!

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