You're Wrong!

Yes, you are, and so am I. We’re wrong a lot, and if we’ll be honest with ourselves, we’re wrong more than we like to admit.


That is between you and God, but when you are working with youth and raising young leaders, you have other obligations as well.

The more you work with and around youth (or other people for that matter) the more often you’ll do or say something stupid around them. It’s not an “if” situation, but a “when.”

The question is, what do you do when you do screw up?

Let me give you an example from my own life. I recently took our leadership team to a local leadership conference. On the way home, I made a snarky comment about one of the hosts, who had been extremely rude to us.

The kids thought my comment was hilarious, but I immediately knew I was wrong for having said it, and that it had come out of my pride and hurt.

What to do?

On the next Sunday, during our weekly meeting, I apologized. They still thought it was funny, so I told them exactly why what I had said was wrong, why my pride was sinful, and how I am responsible for only my own actions, and not the actions of anyone else. I then asked their forgiveness.

By the time I was done, they knew it wasn’t funny anymore, and they learned a hard lesson about themselves, their reactions, and their leader.

When we screw up in front of our students, it is imperative that we explain to them what we did wrong, apologize, and ask their forgiveness. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also provides a model for them to follow.

I could just have easily not said anything, let them think I was snarky and funny, and let everything go. This would have been easier for me, and not near as humiliating, but would have given those students who heard it the idea that comments like that are okay.

How often do you admit to your students that you are wrong? How do you handle those situations?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt