My Heart For A Boy Named David

I'm not sure what it is, but God always seems to give me a heart for the teenage boy. And many times it's the difficult teenage boy at that! There is a boy by the name David at the Casa Hogar Esperanza. Let's not call him difficult, and let's not even say that he's a problem-child, but let's just say that David is in a rut. He's having a hard time being motivated. He's having a hard time having much vision and passion about life right now. He doesn't want to go to school, and so he dropped out. He doesn't want to work, and so he hasn't. He doesn't want to follow rules, and so, you guessed it, he hasn't done much of that either.

The other day when we came to visit the Casa Hogar we found David sitting on the street. He was on the curb outside the children's home. He was sitting with the hood of his red sweatshirt pulled all up around his face, hiding from the world, yet wearing his emotions on the outside for all to see.

I sat down with David, and gave him an infamous side hug. He barely responded. He obviously wasn't in much mood to talk. After I insisted that he tell me what was going on he just mumbled that he was in trouble with the directors of the children's home.

Upon further investigation, and talking with the house mother of the children's home I discovered that David has been showing up late several nights in a row, and that last night he didn't come home before they locked the gate, so he had to sleep outside.

I went back with David and talked to him again. I told David that he needed to talk to the director, and that he needed to make a new deal with him if he expected them to even consider letting him back in. I urged him to consider his future, and to consider how he wants this to all turn out. He agreed that he would. I made him promise me. He promised that as soon as the director returned from his errands that he'd speak with him. I admit that I wasn't sure he'd follow through, but in my heart of hearts I was hoping so.

The next day I returned to the children's home. I was so glad to see David there. This time he wasn't pathetically slumped up on the curb, but rather he was holding a paintbrush, and giving a fresh coat of green paint to the outside gate.

"I take it you talked to the director. Congratulations," I commented.

"Yes," he replied.

"And I'm assuming you have yourself quite a list of work to do around here?"

"Yes," he replied.

"How's your attitude been?," I asked him.

"What attitude?," he replied.

"THAT attitude," I said. "Rate yourself, 0-10, how's your attitude been?"

"About an 8 I suppose," he said with a little grin.

"Now THAT'S what I like to hear. I like you David," I told him. "I know we don't know each other very well but I want to help you. I see all this potential that God has placed in you - and I want to do all that I can to help you. Would you be up for hanging out with me?"

"Yes," he replied, with a great big tooth-bearing grin.

I cannot wait to hang out with David. I cannot wait to see what God wants to do with his life.