You'll Be In MY Heart

(This is the last of the articles I wrote for LNF Newsletter. My next post will be back to normal whatever that means.)



One of my first Bibles was given to me by my youth minister when I was in high school. The Bible was an Easy-to-Read version that I liked because I could understand it better. I think the Bible was given to him and whoever gave it to him wrote this on the inside cover: “To be in a child’s heart tomorrow, you have to be in their life today.” I remember those words a lot when I think about the type of person I want to be. One of the things I see in the life of Jesus is that he was always in people’s lives today, so he could be in their hearts tomorrow.


If I could give advice to people who would like to be mentors in the lives of kids, I would give them this advice:
1. Remember the quote from above. You have to be with them today, to impact their tomorrow. One of the most underrated things about mentoring is not what you do, but simply that you are there. You do not have to come up with great games. You don’t have to be the coolest person in the room. It is as easy as showing up. Everyone comes in and out of their lives, from mom’s boyfriend to their father or even their own mother, in this day and age. They don’t need the people who are supposed to be a positive influence to come in and out of their lives.
2. Keep it simple- the level of your impact is not based on the complexity of your input. The message only has to be “Jesus loves you this I know for the Bible tells me so.” One of my favorite quotes about impact is this: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Let your message be simple with words and deeds. “I care about you!”
3. Interested is interesting – (If you know where this quote comes from, don’t judge me for loving chick flicks.) The quote is so true. The more you show kids that you care and you are there for them, the more they become engaged and tuned in to you. Come ready for fun and have intriguing questions for the student.
4. The last thing I would suggest is to be prepared to improve their lives, not fix them. Mentors get overwhelmed sometimes at how big the problem seems. It is not our job to fix them. Leave that to God. We are here to help God show them and prepare them to be the best possible version of themselves.


Mentoring at LNF is a life-changing thing for the students and the mentor. It does not take a superhero to be a mentor. It just takes a person who wants to be a kid’s hero. Here is a list of tasks that I have witnessed that have made a significant impact on our kids’ lives.: Working though 20 sight word flash cards and multiplication flash cards, teaching a girl how to bump a volleyball, sitting with a child and working though every detail of his math homework, letting a girl beat you in checkers to see her eyes light up and confidence soar, and just showing up to things that matter to them to let them know you care i.e. soccer games, baseball games, school assemblies. All of these things are done in the name of Jesus to show the students of LNF that we care.

We Pray for the children!

One of my favorite pieces of literature about working with children was written by Ina J. Hughes. In this poem, she does a wonderful job capturing all the joys, beauties, blessings, heartbreaks and heartaches that go into working with children.

A Prayer for the Children… by Ina J. Hughes

We pray for the children

who put chocolate fingers everywhere,

who like to be tickled,

who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,

who sneak popsicles before supper,

who erase holes in math workbooks,

who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those

who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,

who’ve never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers,

who never had crayons to count,

who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,

who never go to the circus,

who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children

who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,

who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,

who give hugs in a hurry and forget their lunch money,

who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,

who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,

who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those

who never get dessert,

who watch their parents watch them die,

who have no safe blanket to drag behind,

who can’t find any bread to steal,

who don’t have any rooms to clean up,

whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,

whose monsters are real.

We pray for children

who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,

who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,

who like ghost stories, 
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,

who never rinse out the tub,

who get visits from the tooth fairy,

who don't like to be kissed in front of the school,

who squirm in church or temple or mosque and scream in the phone,

whose tears we sometimes laugh at and 
whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those

whose nightmares come in the daytime,

who will eat anything,

who aren't spoiled by anybody,

who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried, 
and for those who must.

For those we never give up on,

and for those who never get a chance.

For those we smother with our love,

and for those who will grab the hand of anybody 
kind enough to offer it.

At Love Never Fails, we work daily with children whose lives, personalities, and struggles will make you cry one minute and the next make you laugh like never before in your life. One of those kids for me is Marcus. If I have ever seen a million-dollar smile, Marcus has it. He is a bright kid, but to be honest he is deeply troubled. Marcus is the youngest of 6 kids. His mother is way too young to have 6 kids. Marcus is a born leader, and I am so glad LNF is in Marcus’ life. The abilities Marcus has are seen all over the inner cities in our country. The sad fact is that most of these males turn out to be leaders of gangs and big-time drug dealers, rather than successful businessmen. The way of gangs is already in Marcus’ bloodline. Marcus’ dad was a former gang member that was killed execution-style by gang members. During a recent Principles To Live By, Marcus told the story of his sister’s birthday party where a drive-by happened. The result left him as a 9-year-old boy witnessing his grandmother’s and a cousin’s deaths. It is easy to see why Marcus has his moments of darkness and despair. Marcus has more bad weeks than good weeks. But make no mistake, Marcus is one of the most resilient kids I have ever seen. I think of lines in the poem like “we pray for those whose nightmares come in the middle of the day” and “whose monsters are real.” Kids like Marcus are the reason why LNF heads into dark, hard places to share the love of Christ. Because of LNF, kids like Marcus are prayed for and loved. And his picture is not only on our dressers. His picture is stamped on our hearts and his name is lifted to the throne room of God. Because we want Marcus to know the God who loves him and that love never fails or dies.

It is A Whole New World!

The next 3 post are article written for the Love Never Fails newletter.



Recently, a research study was conducted by a non-profit organization that looked at a couple of kids the same age and living in the same city. The differences between the kids were easily recognizable. Even though their houses were less than 3 miles apart, their skins were different colors, and their parents’ pay scales were on opposite ends of the spectrum. There was a night-and-day difference between the boys. In the first 10 years of life, the research was amazingly different. One of the differences that struck me as significant is the difference in exposure. The boy from the wealthy neighborhood traveled about 35,000 more miles in his first 8 years of life than the other boy. Also, the boy from the wealthy neighborhood heard about 10,000 more words than the other boy his age, in the same city.

This study has motivated me to make sure this is different for the kids that I work with. Love Never Fails makes sure that the students in our programs experience and are exposed to a fullness of life. We intentionally make sure that our students experience a variety of things. Some opportunities are obviously great exposure for kids from at-risk neighborhoods - things like college campuses, the ins and outs of local business, and other trips designed to make sure that our students get a chance to view the world of possibilities. Other outings may not seem as important, but are equally important. This year we exposed them to things like Dallas Mavericks’ basketball games, baseball games, and trips to the military base (where they were privileged to sit on a plane that can fuel up other planes in mid air), just to name a few. While focused on fun, these events can be life-changing and inspiring. At Love Never Fails, we want to make sure that we make lasting imprints on the hearts, minds and lives of our students.

I recently had the chance to take two boys from Love Never Fails to the Harlem Globetrotters game at American Airlines Arena. The two boys are 6th graders and had never heard of the Globetrotters before. One boy had never been to AA arena before, and the other had been only once 2 years earlier, also with Love Never Fails. We had a grand time. We laughed. They laughed. They wondered if the game was real or fake. They told me they could dunk. I told them donuts do not count. We had a blast, and what a surprise - the Globetrotters won! On the way home, one of the boys told the other boy to keep his ticket to save so he could remember the trip. He told the other boy that he saved his Mavs game ticket from 2 years ago and still has it. Now this was head-turning for me. This kid cannot keep up with his homework for more than 30 minutes but somehow kept up with a ticket for over 2 years. Why? Because that trip was special to him.
Students at LNF might not like the Globetrotters, college campuses, or airplanes that fuel up other airplanes. But now they know if they do or not because they have experienced these opportunities in their own lives.