From Doubts to Discipleship

High schoolers are intimidating! They are (much) cooler than me and speak a language that makes me feel ancient. (Speaking of feeling ancient - did y’all see American Girl released a doll from 1986?!?! When did 1986 become long enough ago for their line of historical dolls????) In any case, this year, God has placed two boisterous, fun-loving, and curious high school girls in my life. I see them twice a week for a marketing internship and was incredibly nervous at the start of this year in anticipation of how this would go. I was trying to delicately balance wanting to give them meaningful work while realizing this isn’t a graded class they’re taking so as to not overwhelm them. 
 
Over the last five weeks, my nerves have turned into excitement. Our 90 minutes together on Monday and Wednesday have become one of the highlights of my week. While I love working with them, the best part is hearing about their lives and engaging in deep conversations peppered with humor and depth.
 
As we’ve been getting to know each other better I’ve been feeling the nudge to make this relationship more intentional but have been putting it off. Little voices in my head would deter me from asking because “well, we kind-of already do this” or “asking to ‘officially’ enter into a discipleship relationship would be ‘low-key’ awkward”. (They’re teaching me their slang…)
 
However, the feeling that I should ask persisted and I realized the doubts I had were lies Satan was using to keep me from going deeper with these young ladies. So I took the plunge. I’m excited to get to know them better and to make our times together this semester even more special. What started as an extracurricular activity for school has turned into much more. My daily interactions with these ladies range from late night texts about deep spiritual matters to sharing stories of the big and little things that have happened throughout the day. In many ways I feel ill-equipped to disciple these ladies, but God has knit us together and this friendship is driving me to pursue Him more each day. 
 
It can seem very scary to take the first step and initiate a discipleship relationship with someone, but it is worth it! If there is someone that God has placed on your heart, I encourage you to step out in faith and explore a more intentional friendship with another sister in Christ. God will use these relationships to grow us and bring us closer to Him. 

Author

Kristen Spitz serves on the Advisory Council of Women, KidzMin, and the worship team as well as working at Summit Christian Academy as the Director of Admissions and Marketing. She and her husband, Garrett, have two children, Natalie and Graham. ​