heart full of burden for our teens

Wow. What a weekend. From Friday til Sunday I was at a Youth Fall Retreat, where our group and another church got together for a weekend of "Re-Fueling, Re-Freshing, and Re-Focusing." It was amazing. God tugged and tugged on my heart for our kids probably more than any other time during our 18 mos. here at our church. He put such a burden on me for our students that I spent hours in prayer (literally) over the course of this weekend for them. I had several girls (we took 20 students overall, of whom 10 were girls) confide in me, confess to me, cry to me - all which I helped guide to the "throne of God" in prayer. Confession to me helps in accountability but only One can offer the kind of forgiveness and mercy that they need! Our teens are dealing with a world filled with sin, just like we are, only they are faced with it during impressionable years. They have so many decisions to make each day where they have to consciously decide, "Am I going to walk the hard walk with Christ or do what feels good right now?" At least as adults we have "work regulations" and such that limit the peer pressures we face. These teens are in the thick of darkness daily. All our children and teens need so much prayer. I was brought to tears and to my knees for our students and my own daughter this weekend. I felt so drained on Sunday when it was all over, but I hope to not lose that burden so that I daily remember the need for prayer over these students and my own child.