From Our RHK Executive Director: Looking at the Heart

Over the summer, it was exciting to have some kids return whom we hadn't seen in a few years. They left as “little” kids and returned as teens. One in particular is now a 15-year-old young man. When I sat down next to him, I mentioned how tall he had gotten. I jokingly asked what happened and he quipped, “Puberty.” I could not stop laughing. Once a timid young boy, he is now a confident, funny young man. I love seeing them grow up! He also brought four new people with him!

There was another teen who had been gone for the summer and returned. His voice was so much deeper. I kidded him that he better go home because he must have a cold. His voice didn’t sound right! He just smiled, shook his head, and said, “Ms. Dee!”

A teen girl has been having some rough moments. One night, I had to pull her out and speak to her. She was very defensive. Whenever she was asked to do something, she fought us. She would refuse, complain, or act out.

The first thing she told me was that she knew we didn’t want her there. I asked her why she thought that. She said it was because I called her out to talk to her. Come to find out, she instantly thought she was in trouble instead of me just wanting to hear from her.

So, I asked her, “Why do you come? Do you want to be here?” Those two questions opened a floodgate of conversation.

She informed me she wanted to be at RHK to be away from her people. That meant away from home. She said RHK is the only place she can be herself. When she is with her people, she has to act a certain way.

I then asked, “Then why does it look like you hate being at RHK?” She said sometimes she is just thinking, and that’s her face. We take it the wrong way. When she said that, I realized we were jumping to conclusions. We were judging her outward appearance. We needed to ask questions.

By the time we were done with our conversation, we came up with a plan for how to interact with each other. She smiled; she felt seen. She knew she was wanted, and she was enough. She was loved.

There are days at RHK when you feel like, no matter what you do, it is never enough. You leave defeated, heartbroken for the kids. You want to do more. You want them to be able to see themselves through your eyes. Even more, you want them to see themselves through God’s eyes.

The teens’ memory verse this summer was 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV):

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”

The world tells kids they are valued for what they look like and what they have. That is not what God sees. He looks at their heart. This is why we continue to feed Biblical truth to the kids so they will find HOPE in Jesus.

I once heard, “No society has ever failed by investing too much into their kids.” At RHK, we invest everything into our kids and trust that Jesus will continue to give us the strength to do so.

Blessings,

Dee Lacny, Executive Director, Rock House Kids