“Thanks for a great week! You were a lot more help this year than last year.”
These were the parting words from a youth pastor whose group I was privileged to have in my cabin two summers in a row as a counselor at the Bill Rice Ranch in the mid-1990s. It was a bit hard to know whether it was a compliment or not!
Regardless of the intent, the statement was true. During the previous summer I had been intimidated by two nineteen-year-old guys who camped out in the back of the cabin as far away from the camp counselor bunk as possible. The youth pastor worked all week to keep them in line with minimal help from me. How could I as a nineteen-year-old myself get them to obey the rules?
By the next summer, I had experienced a life-changing perspective change. My authority had not been enhanced by a twentieth birthday. I had grown in my understanding that my authority did not lie in my age, experiences, size, or brilliance but rather in the designated power from the Bill Rice Ranch.
Authority is always designated, whether you are talking about a camp counselor or a Christian parent. The newly discovered confidence that completely changed my presence in the cabin could revolutionize a father’s perspective in his own home.