Why you need to be around people who let you down

I wasn’t ready the first time it happened. I was a (very) young youth pastor, ready to take on the world. I had been teaching, preaching, and pastoring since I was 18. Now I was newly married and ready to become a full fledged church staff person. Or at least a part time youth pastor. My wife and I moved to a (very) small town of under 600 to lead these youth, and I was ready to start a revival. Before we left for summer camp, the music minister ( and local banker) told me that he needed to “put a bug in my ear about something.” That something turned out to be about the way my wife and I were doing things. There were some people that didn’t like they way we did things and they thought we should know better. So they talked to each other about it, and then finally someone talked to the music minister so that he would to talk to me. I was completely caught off guard. My wife and I were severely hurt by the way these people gossiped and made accusation against us.