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turned toward me as she sang and I saw a completely different person. Her facial expressions, her voice and eyes were all completely filled with joy. It was amazing how quickly she changed. I'd never seen anything like that in all of my life. When the pace of the music slowed, everyone sat back down and Erin, the youth minister, stepped up to the podium.
      "A lot of adults look at youth today and the only thing they see is a headache and a problem. They complain about the negative energy in the music youth listen to, they complain about the way they wear their clothes and violence they commit against each other. It would appear to many our youth today have completely lost their minds. But I'm here to tell you that it's not all about the youth and what they're doing. Some of it is about the parents and what they are not doing. You see, as a child you come into this world knowing very little. And it is up to the parents to program the child with good information so that he or she can function and be all that God intended them to be."
      "That's right," I heard Grandmother Katie say in agreement.
      "When I was a young man coming of age my family wasn't rich, but we weren't poor either. We were just broke all of the time. And what I mean by that is there was always enough money to take care of the household but rarely was there enough left over for luxuries. Today, we call that 'living from paycheck to paycheck.'"
      Everyone in the church laughed together because they understood where the pastor was coming from.
      "When I needed new clothes for school or church my mother would always take me to a discount department store called Value Smart. And she would always take me to a shoe bin in the middle of an aisle where the shoes were connected together via their shoestrings and tell me to find my size. And I would always say, 'Dang Mama, why can't we ever go to the regular department store instead of coming here to Value Smart?' And do you know what she said?"
      "Tell us what she said," Grandmother Katie said.
      "She said that we don't go to those stores because I want you to understand that your value is not linked to the clothes on your back or the shoes on your feet. She told me that my value was the light that was inside me. She said my value was linked to my intelligence. She said that my value was linked to the content of my character. She said that my value was linked to how I feel about myself and not about how I look."
       Wow, I thought. I felt as if Erin was speaking directly to me. I listened to the rest of his sermon, and what I thought would most certainly be a completely boring time actually turned out to be interesting.
      As promised, Erin introduced me to members of the youth choir. They were all very nice and welcoming and one girl even suggested that we catch a movie during my next visit.
      After church Grandmother Katie and I went to the mall. We stopped at the bath-and-body shop and she said that I could pick out some scented lotion and bubble bath for myself. I walked around sniffing a variety of scents but finally settled on a body lotion that smelled like peaches. We stopped at the food court, got something to eat and then headed back home. It was during the drive home that I got brave and decided to share the reasons behind why I gave myself to Ronnie.
    "The sermon was really interesting today," I said.
      "Yes, it was," Grandmother Katie agreed as she merged with the traffic on the expressway.
      "All of the talk about being valuable was kind of new to me. Why do guys make girls feel as if they're valuable or special just to get what they want and then dump you?" I swallowed hard because that was a tough question for me to ask.
      "Well, what is it that guys want?" she asked, and I couldn't believe that she was going to make me spell it out for her. I swallowed hard again. It wasn't easy for me to ask adult questions.
      "You know, when they want you to give it up. They'll