"The greatest compliment would be to show him his efforts weren't wasted"

So I'm having this pretty intense conversation with Josh Mills, and out of nowhere I became this superforce, and it's gotten me pretty shaken up, so I figured I'd document it or something.


"ultimately, this is his time to think of what he needs for once, instead of thinking about all of us.
He needs his family, and they NEED him...
and I trust Shawn, i hold his opinion higher than any other human I know, and if he says everything is going to be okay, that we're going to be okay, than I know its true
I talked to him about how getting a new youth pastor will be hard and some kids might be sketched out, but honestly, if he's taught us anything, he's taught us how to love
and hes taught us how to survive, so we'll greet the new youth pastor (Lord help him) with open arms and we'll greet the challenges the same way.
Shawn is an incredible person, and he has God's spirit coursing through him, so i don't think its right; in fact, it kind of makes me sick, that anyone should be doubting him.
Josh says:
you just have to trust gods timing
Josh says:
which is infinitely perfect
Josh says:
and shawn has to be there for his family for sure
Josh says:
i think its great that his kids will have him
Josh says:
its just very hard
Josh says:
everyone just loves him so much
Josh says:
and to have scott go
Josh says:
and then shawn
Josh says:
is just alot to handle for some
Molly -|-You're a part time lover and a full time friend, the monkey on your back is the latest trend-|- says:
I'm not saying its not.
Shawn is the closest thing I have to a dad.
I don't think I've cried as hard as I did today since my own dad left.
But when I was surrounded by a bunch of youth crying, and I looked up and shawn looked RIGHT at me, i figured I had two choices.
I could over think and over analyze and kind of sink into the sorrow, or i could be the leader he's been building me up to be and make him proud.
So thats what I did. I held Kyle's hand, I hugged Tiana and Keeley... and thats what I'm doing now... I'm talking these kids through it, because I KNOW how hard it is for me, so I feel that it's my job to comfort those teens.
I'm not a teen anymore, I'm a leader, I'm supposed to be there for them
He's been telling me that for weeks
I guess it just took this for me to really exercise it.


I'm also having an equally incredible conversation with Josh Reno.


Molly -|-You're a part time lover and a full time friend, the monkey on your back is the latest trend-|- says:
Yeah
I don't think I could really spit that speech out more than once
but I'd like to, to shawn
one day

Josh:
i felt the same way about shawn
he was a huge male influence for me when Denis left.
the best thing we can do for shawn
is to keep the youth group alive and be the best leaders we can be
because he invested his time in us so that we could run it without him
the greatest compliment would be to show him his efforts weren't wasted




And that's just what we're going to do.