Next week I'm going into Clint's sunday school class to talk with the high school girls about purity. I have some ideas of what to talk about like:
how guys think...
modesty...
myspace and facebook...
keeping God focused instead of guy focused...
This is a short lesson - only about 35 minutes and then we'll have a panel of women to answer questions. I could take anyone of these topics and talk for hours. So I thought I ask you my bloggies for your opinions.
What do you wish you would have heard as a teenage girl? What do you think today's teenager needs most to hear? There are several great resources like briomag.com or purefreedom.org that I've gleaned some information from. But now I want to hear from you. Any thoughts?! :)
how guys think...
modesty...
myspace and facebook...
keeping God focused instead of guy focused...
This is a short lesson - only about 35 minutes and then we'll have a panel of women to answer questions. I could take anyone of these topics and talk for hours. So I thought I ask you my bloggies for your opinions.
What do you wish you would have heard as a teenage girl? What do you think today's teenager needs most to hear? There are several great resources like briomag.com or purefreedom.org that I've gleaned some information from. But now I want to hear from you. Any thoughts?! :)
13 comments:
Couple of things that really impacted me:
1. The idea of waiting for man and not wasting anything on a boy
2. The idea of having to explain to your husband when you finally meet him that you were not patient enough to wait for him.
my heart breaks for teens. i really think i could write on this forever...hey maybe that's what my book will be about! i remember being a teen like it was yesterday. 2 things i struggled with the most: popularity. i sooooo wanted to be popular. now as a fully mature adult (ha), i know that i was seeking my self worth through popularity instead of in christ. i don't know what i would say to a teen that would change their mindset, but i know it always spoke to me when i heard another person validating that struggle outloud.
the 2nd thing....and this was HUGE for me was regarding my "christian" friends. a lot of my good friends were "christians" and we all attended the same church and public school. yet all of them were having sex by the 10th grade and drank and some even smoked.
this was very, very confusing for me. looking back, i KNOW i had a heart for the lord and wanted to do the right thing. yet it was very confusing for me when my christian friends made these choices. it really made me feel like i was on an island. that feeling that "everybody is doing it" really felt real to me.
even though i made some wrong choices, God, really really protected me and i didn't make HUGE mistakes.
ok...i'm realizing that this commenting post has rambled with no solutions to helping you gather your thoughts, but those were my struggles. now think of something to solve them! ;)
This has been an issue close to my heart for a long time so am excited for you with this opportunity Jami - I know you'll do great.
Real quickly (since I don't have a ton of time right now), one of my first thoughts is ENCOURAGE. In one of my counseling courses they were talking about the reality these girls are surrounded with - the statisics were around 60% (and sometimes higher) of high school kids who had sex by the age of 15! My personal high school reality? - I was one of TWO of my friends (across a large group) who had made the choice not to by the end of my senior year. So amidst the encouragement to continue pursuing purity has to be the acknowledgement, encouragement and commending of the choices they HAVE made and are making. It is hard, hard, hard. Especially when the choice can have social implications.
The other thought is to address the many gray lines in between. I think that is where satan loves to destroy. It's easy to say I won't have sex . .. but I don't think there is enough addressing of the "the gray inbetween." I thought Jill did an awesome job touching on that at Vision last year. What often is not shared enough in purity movements is that the gray can/will impact for a lifetime as well. It can't be about "how far" I will or won't go.
I'll be prayerful for you!
Jami, what a great opportunity!
One thing I wished I would have realized during that time is you don't have to be in a "physical" relationship to give your heart away. Emotional relationships can cut just as deep & can stay with you just as long!
I would love to hear what you decided to focus on and how it went!
I agree with Amber on talking about the gray area in between. It's not often discussed and is easy to justify the gray area because it's "technically" not sex.
Also along Amber's line...I heard it said this way too...It's not how far can I go, it's how pure can I be?
I really like your sub-topic of "keeping God-focused instead of guy-focused"; He is the only one who can fill the void within our hearts completely & singleness can be more easily viewed as a gift if we're intent on pursing a relationship with God. I also agree with the other comments about "guarding one's heart"; I know many who waited for sex until marriage but gave their hearts away (to someone other than their husband); the pain/scars are just as real.
I just wish I knew there was a reason people told me not to have sex. It was just a "don't do it" thing growing up for me, with no explaination.
It is really amazing that you and Clint invest in teenagers like this!!!! I'll be praying for your time with them!!!
Girls - I have loved reading your comments. It gives me great perspective and ideas. Thanks so much! I'll let you know how it goes!
Anybody else have thoughts...I'll keep checking! :)
Okay I was not sure as how to word it, but amber said it perfectly. Girls now a day do other things and claim it is not sex (the gray area), but in reality it is all sin. And girls are doing things to impress boys starting in grade school what ever happen to sleep overs and hangiing out with girlfriends.
Great idea for a talk! Two things come to mind for me 1) I really had no idea what guys were thinking about when they saw girls dressed provocatively. So, the idea that as girls they can help their "brothers" by dressing modestly 2) My hubby and I were at a Family Life Conference years ago, and the speaker said that he and his wife were telling their children that it was inappropriate to do anything more than kiss your significant other. The idea here was that when people say "we can't have sex", and they slip up, then, maybe they had sex. But, if they say, "nothing more than a kiss" and they slip up . . .
Not only to stress that you shouldn't but you never know if one already has or is....I don't know what age you are teaching but you should also say that if they already have made wrong choices sex or "gray" area that God can forgive and it is never to late to stand for what purity is and be pure.... That is what I need to know when I was a teen...... God is so good!
Jami- What's your e-mail address? I recently helped with a 3 week, high-school sunday school lesson on these topics, and I'd love to send you our handouts.
Amber (Heimer) Lehman
Amber - you can email me at clintandjami@gmail.com
Thanks!!!!
Post a Comment