Should you hope that your teens gets a crush on their youth minister?

Wayyyy back in 2008 I wrote (here) about those within a youth ministry having a crush on their youth minister.

As far as I know. It never happened with me. No young lass ever had a crush on me.

But, as I mentioned back in 2008, it makes sense.

Someone older, wiser and cooler invests time in your life.

That’s appealing when you’re a teen.

So, if you’re a parent of a teen, should you secretly hope that your offspring gets a slight crush for their youth leader?

Now, I’m aware that a) the question itself is kinda creepy and b) there have been far too many instances when this interaction has been manipulated and turns into something inappropriate. No one ever wants the second half of that sentence to play out.

 it, with those disclaimers out of the way…

If the youth minister of your church/one of the primary youth ministry leaders is a good role model, why wouldn’t you want them to be the kind of person your youngster may wish to romantically ponder about?

If teen crushes are all about discovering the types of things which you’ll find attractive - especially if those things are positive characteristics instead of just being a dreamboat - wouldn’t someone with a considered, confident, strong faith be something which you’d want your teen to be drawn towards?

On a far more pragmatic scale, wouldn’t a tiny, healthy, crush be useful in order to help inspire your teen to spring out of bed and want to attend church on a Sunday morning (which can be a struggle for a teen if there’s not some hormonally-driven motivation).

Again, I’m not hoping that any of my children will end up with the bloke who’s currently leading them in a bible study, but that they may find the type of qualities he has attractive surely isn’t the worst thing in the world…