This morning–before the 12 visiting family members currently crammed into our home woke up -I snuck some desperately needed time to myself with a venti nonfat mocha and the brand new issue of Group Magazine. It’s rare with the frantic pace of these days to find peace and stillness, and in the midst of this morning’s delicious silence I ran across this wonderful tidbit in Group Magazine called , Downshifting 101, authored by Dan Webster, founder of Authentic Leadership, and one of the NYMC speakers leading an entire track on Soul Care.

Picture entering your day with a sense of purpose and confidence that flows from a quiet connectedness to God. You’re unhurried and focused. Your heart has the resources you need to face the challenges of the day. There’s wisdom in the moment, compassion for the needy, and love for the teenagers you encounter.

Now think of life as it usually is. You enter the same day stressed, behind, pressured, angry, fearful, and worried…feeling generally on edge. Tasks seem overwhelming, teenagers are interruptions, and your personality has the aroma of kitchen garbage. How many days in the last month have been like that for you?

By nature youth workers tend to be people of action. We thrive of the battlefields of problems, decisions, and crises. If things slow down, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. The upside of action is that things get done, and that’s good. The downside of always staying in the action is that we run the risk of losing touch with our hearts–and that’s bad.

Intentionally downshift at the beginning of each day so you can bring a quiet trusting heart into the work of loving teenagers. They’ll be grateful and you will know joy.

Merry Christmas everyone! May you find God’s peace in your pace.

1. A Deeper Learning Track is a series of workshops that meets 4 times (twice on Sat., twice on Sunday), and is taught by the same speaker (or panel of speakers) Tracks take the workshop model to a deeper level, covering more material and allowing time to discuss application of the ideas and information. Lots of class discussion in tracks–people are encouraged to ask questions, and to share ideas and solutions with the class. Track seating arrangement is small-group inspired in round tables with 8 per table.

2. All tracks have a condensed 90 minute ”Super Session” on Monday morning for exposure to another whole track.

3. There was an error in the registration system–and you DO NOT have to register for a track in advance. (although it is recommended) This advance seat reservation simply helps us plan for accurate class size, and ensures a seat for those who really want one.

4. You can hop around and attend any track session or workshop at anytime–no reservation is needed. However, some tracks might be totally full, and seating is prioritized by advance reservation. The best way to experience a track is to attend all 4 sessions, and supplement with workshops offered at non-track times.

Andy’s actually visiting us in Colorado this week for some meetings at Group, and brought along his wife, Julie, and son, Carter, for company.  Since my husband, Tim, oversees the youth ministry resource area at Group and works closely with Andy, I thought a home-cooked dinner would be a nice way to include the whole family while we talked about the media workshop series at the conference.

Shortly before Tim and the Brazelton family showed up for dinner, I discovered disturbing evidence that our 85lb Golden Retriever puppy, Molly, had officially “entered into her womanhood.” Since Molly is a gregarious attention-loving beast, I couldn’t just lock her outside the patio door and spend an evening trying to talk over her frantic barking. A quick trip to PetsMart and some disposable dog diapers was the only solution. With the help of my mortified 12 year-old daughter, and 10 year-old son, we manged to wrestle a pamper on her and have a nice little impromtu, illustrated discussion about adolescent body changes. Problem solved.

When Andy, Julie and Carter arrived at our home, Molly barrelled into them with a super-hyper greeting. Her not-so-fresh doggie diaper exploded right off and launched at them as well. Welcome Brazeltons! Andy and Julie were kind enough to assist me in round 2 of the dog-diapering rematch. (it’s hard to put a wagging tail through the pamper tail-hole.) We proceeded to hang out for awhile and talk about some new workshops that need to be added to the NYMC website when Andy noticed Molly was trembling, graciously mentioned something smelled bad, and asked if the diaper allowed her to go to the bathroom if needed.  An a-ha moment for all of us. The sanitary pamper effort had taken an unfortunate 180 degree turn. I’ll stop the story here. We tried to enjoy our dinner conversation, but it was really hard to hear over the barking.

Thanks for being a great sport, Andy!