Ah to be a preteen again!

I have been traveling with SuperStart now for three years and there is one constant thing about preteens that amaze me every weekend we hold a SuperStart event. I've also been working with our High School Move Conference for the last five years and I'm not surprised to see high schooler's doing this, or even the Jr. highers at Believe. I think I am totally guilty of assuming that because preteens are young they are not capable or even able to understand what they are doing and the meaning of their actions. Shame on me! I'm not talking about anything bad, in fact it's so incredibly good and pure. I'm talking about a preteens ability to worship. If you think a preteen doesn't know what they are doing when they are worshiping I would have to strongly disagree. I see it every weekend and it gives me chills every time. It's that feeling when you are watching "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and everyone yells "MOVE THAT BUS" and the family goes crazy with excitement to see their new home which is better then anything they could have ever dreamed. In that moment you have to take a deep breath to either keep from losing it or to let the flood gate open wide. And you've been holding it back the whole time because you don't want to show that a TV show is making you emotional. That's the feeling I get when I see these preteens worship. I am usually in the back of the audience so I can't hear them as well as up front, so I went to the front one time and was blown away. It's amazing to hear a room of 700 preteens worship louder then a room of 700 adults on a Sunday morning. Preteens are at a special place where they have some bad B.O. because they haven't discovered deodorant yet, but they don't care, and they don't care that they might not be the best singer in the world so they are going to sing the loudest they can because they want to make sure God can hear their praise to Him. I'm not exactly sure where we lose that as we grow up, but I wish we all could be in that special place like preteens, minus the lack of deodorant.

Matt Foreman