H is for Hospital

Since I started working with youth, I have been to the hospital three times.  Each time was for a different girl in my youth group.  Each of them were in the emergency room for a different reason, one youth hit her knee on a railing while we were playing hide and seek in the church and dislocated it.  Another youth had an epileptic seizure, and the third had some depression issues.

Sitting in the waiting room is not an easy process when anyone is in the hospital, but it is especially hard when it is a child.  It is hard to watch children in pain or for that matter it is hard to watch them cry at all.  I can only imagine what it is like for a parent that loves their child so much to have to go through something as terrifying as the emergency room.  I don’t just have one or two children in my life, I have a bunch and the last thing I want to see is one of them in pain. 

Our youth group is around 30 members, each of them have their own personalities, style, talents, abilities, problems, self esteem issues, and unsure feelings about themselves.  They all bring something different to the table.  The all share their life with me and our church family.

Each time I have been to the hospital for a youth, I have been blessed by the fact that that youth didn’t have any major long term problems.  They were able to go home and after either treatment or counseling, they have been on the road to recovery.  Not all youth are that lucky.

There are so many different reasons why a youth ends up in the hospital.  Some are not under our control like untreatable illness or disease.  Others are treatable like the flu or a dislocated knee.  Some are mental or emotional like depression.  Sometimes it is an accident that was out of our control or an accident that was in our control like texting or talking on the cell phone while driving.

Every day youth end up in the hospital for one reason or another.  I know that the 3 times I have been are not the only times I will go.  I understand that by working with youth I run the risk of seeing my youth in pain.   It is a risk I will take.  I will be there when they need me and I will love them no matter what.  Watch out after your children, if they are in the hospital for any reason at all, be there for them with a loving heart, a open mind, and a heavy soul.  That is when they are scared and need our love more than anything else in the world.