I don’t get offended easily. I am diligent in living life as a survivor and not as a victim. I make sure that the remarks and actions of others don’t cause me to pause my life in confusion and doubt.

Well, I let someone’s remark hurt me and it still kind of hurts. Hopefully writing this out will help.

The other night I was standing with some people while they held a conversation. My ears perked up as an invitation was extended to one of them to come to the Sunday night service at church. (The Sunday night service is mostly geared toward people of college age but high-schoolers attend and I’ve been contemplating going, even though I’m out of the age range, to have an opportunity to spend some time with my group of freshman girls.) The person on the receiving end of the invitation stated that they go to one of the Sunday morning services and (here’s the dagger) said, “With all the parents.” Now if this conversation would have taken place in writing, I would not have had a second thought. However, I “heard” the eye roll. I “heard” the scoff in the tone of this person’s voice. I wanted to blurt out, “Hey, I’m one of those.” and hopefully cause this person to step back and begin to analyze how they speak about others. But I didn’t. I walked away and decided to spend the rest of the night where I “belonged”, at home, with my children (who were all long gone in dreamland).

This person’s comment really is two-fold for me. Although it doesn’t make me apologetic at all to be a parent, it does make me wonder if I really am in a class that single and childless people feel they can’t relate to, which makes me wonder if the high-schoolers I mentor feel the same way. Maybe this is the reason I don’t see any other youth leaders with young kids. This comment also makes me think about demographic segregation and how sad it is that segregation is still happening and that I am viewed as *that* person because I have kids and I am married.

This person’s comment made me feel devalued in their eyes and that is sad to me and it has left me with a sting.