My wife and I work in a very complicated ministry.

We are Family Teachers at Boys Town. If you’ve never heard of Boys Town, Boys Town is a village surrounded by Omaha, Nebraska and they service at risk teens. My wife and I live in a house with four at risk boys and we are basically their parents during their stay at Boys Town.

I like to tell people that this job is 85% fun. We have a great time with our boys by doing different things. It may be going to the movies, playing outside, playing board games, watching them compete in sports, and the list goes on. But, it’s that 15% that makes this job one of the hardest jobs in the world. You may think that I’m exaggerating when I say that, and I know it’s hard to put into words just how hard this job is at times, but I would be lying if I said anyone can do this job.

In our home we have had at least twenty different instances where a hole has ended up in the wall, we had a boy kick out the van window (thankfully it was parked in the driveway), my wife had a shovel thrown at her, I have been hit multiple times, we have had a fifteen year old in our faces cussing us out, and have been called every name under the sun. This is just a small list of what we have been through, and we have only been in this job for a little more than a year.

Though this happens to us quite a bit, one thing remains the same…

I MUST choose forgiveness.

There is no questions about it, I have to choose to forgive these boys, not matter what they do to me or my wife. I have to forgive and I have to move on, or I couldn’t do this job.

I admit, it was hard the first few times to choose forgiveness. I would have to pray and ask God to give me a heart of forgiveness, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks, I must choose forgiveness, because Jesus forgave me.

I, like everyone else, am a sinner and I sin everyday. My sin should send me straight to Hell, but Jesus has chosen to forgive me. When my boys see that I have forgiven them by my actions, I am showing them a little bit of Jesus.

I write this because I know that there may be a youth in your youth group that you have a hard time with because of their behaviors or actions. Or you have parent that for some reason just doesn’t like you, and they make it known. You can hold on to hard feelings for those people, or you can choose to forgive, just like Jesus forgives.

Zane Kaehr, along with his wife, Staci, are Family Teachers at Boys Town, located just outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Zane enjoys spending time with his wife, watching movies, and the San Antonio Spurs.