Our middle school retreat centered on one truth: you are chosen for a purpose. We wanted students to understand it not as a Bible verse, but as something personal. Something beyond grades, beyond circumstances, beyond what the world has told them.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit."John 15:16
A moment that stayed with us
During one session, students shared affirming words with one another. Each got to give encouragement, and then receive it. What we noticed was striking.
Our students were thoughtful in giving compliments. They noticed leadership. They named kindness. They affirmed courage. They spoke life over one another.
But when it was their turn to receive those same words? Many struggled. Some laughed nervously. Some deflected. Some looked down or avoided eye contact.
It wasn't pride. It wasn't resistance. It was unfamiliarity. For many of our students, affirmation is not something they are used to receiving.
When you grow up navigating economic hardship, academic gaps, or instability, you may learn resilience. You may learn strength. You may learn how to push through. But you may not learn how to receive affirmation.
And that realization mattered, because identity shapes everything. This is the quiet, long work underneath the tutoring and the robots: helping a young person believe they were made for more, and learn to receive it.