A Month in the Life

Preface
Luck you-you get to hear MY [Chauntay] opinion on myspace now. Let me preface this conversation with stating that I do have a myspace account, therefore I speak from personal experience. Also, I have learned a few things in life, but one of my favorite lessons has been, “IT’S OKAY TO HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS!!” Alicia is a dear friend of mine and on some issues we are adamantly opposed to one another-and that’s okay with me. How boring would life be if we all shared the exact same opinion about everything? I have not written any of this to offend anyone, so please don’t be.

This whole myspace issue started with me last week when I received an email from a family member bashing myspace as the devil’s advocate. The premise of the email was focused on children looking at pornography. To be quite honest, if children want to look at pornography, or any other graphic material, then they will find a way. I hate to break it to you but myspace is NOT the only avenue to pornography, nor is it going to just disappear simply because we choose to stick our head's in the sand. If they have Internet access they can easily access ANYthing whether they have an account with myspace or not.

Staying Connected
I do think it’s important for our youth to have a connection with one another, i.e. normal kids who are facing some of the same trials and battles daily as they are. If we have raised our kids right, which I think we have/are, then they can and should have the choice of making the right decisions. Pornography doesn't just appear on your myspace home page; you have to seek it out. In my opinion if they are determined enough to seek it out, they will find it regardless if it’s on myspace or not. Granted your account could be hacked, which could incur unwanted Spam mail, pictures, or comments, but this could also happen with your email account, your computer or just about anything else in this technologically advanced era.

I am linked to many people on myspace, high school, college, and church friends. Myspace is an avenue for me to illustrate to the world that, hey I live a Holy life, you best believe I'm proud of it, and I have a FABulous time while I'm at it!! My church youth group has a group on myspace, as do many other UPC/church youth groups. You can hold forums, post important youth information, or just leave notes. It's great to see all the kids bonded together. They are all in each other’s top friends, and they daily, sometimes multiple times, offer words of encouragement, have scriptures, and so many more things. Myspace has also become convenient for me to observe people. I can easily spot when one of my quizzers are having a bad day, week, or maybe even miffed about something. I have been able to pick up the phone and call, or leave them a friendly, encouraging comment.

Where you leave comments:

What your top Friends list looks like, most kids have their youth group (right is top friends, left are slides shows I have created):

We all have imperfections
Don't get me wrong, I don't think that myspace is perfect, or even close to it, but I also believe that you can't take every "fun" thing out of a "Pentecostal" kids life just because it poses a threat. (btw I am UPC) I DO agree with Alicia on this one. To quote her, “, to bury our heads in the sand is not going to make the “problem” go away”. I do realize that myspace could pose a threat, but so does riding in the car.

The devil made me do it
We give the devil to much credit. Everything in life poses a threat, that's why we constantly strive to teach and show kids the right way. It seems as if we (as Pentecostals) constantly ostracize our kids. These days it appears that every new age "fun" (seemingly to kids) thing that comes along we immediately ban it. "It's going to harm our kids". There are other ways to make your kids be separate from the world. News flash, appearance/Holiness is a HUGE start!! I worry that we have painted this negative image of ourselves that we can’t have fun and live under a rock. I couldn’t even count the number of times that people have asked “YOU’RE Pentecostal? How come you don’t look like the normal one? They usually have long jean skirts and big hair. You aren’t allowed to DO anything right?”

Exhibit A: HOLINESS! lol

What have we left our kids to do for entertainment? Some of us have banned movies (theatres), rodeos, bowling alleys, restaurants that serve alcohol, “sinner” friends (aka Philistines), and so much more. What should they do? Play scrabble all night? Why do we think we are losing so many of our young people once they go to college and enter into the "real world"? If we never let them grow up in it, then they are absolutely not prepared for it when they enter into it and one day they will. Everything can't be bad. I believe it's by your own personal conviction, or your Pastor's teaching. We are all under the umbrella of protection of our Pastor, so we should abide by his teachings. I do however think that the more you restrict from kids the more they will rebel.


Hidden agendas
I wish that people could look beyond a few articles with hidden agendas and see that sometimes things can be used for the good. Lets face the facts: these kids are going to be on myspace (or other related social sites), you don't have much control over that. What you can do is preach/teach about it and how you can use it for the good. Teach kids that okay if you are on it, let this be your light you shine. Let this be the lifestyle you want to portray. Let them let their light shine. Teach them that although you can blog about something and vent, that it’s still important to talk to God. Everything in Moderation; Simply put. If you spend more time on ESPN, AOL chatting, Bowling alley, Rodeo, or on myspace than you do with God then that’s wrong.

I don't know how many of you have a direct connection with kids (that aren't your own and aren't afraid to confide in you), but this world is tough. I think our quizzers do an amazing job of being normal and making the right decisions. I grew up in a public school and know all about the "lifestyles" of the world, which today it’s a whole new ball game. I think that my quizzers have done a wonderful job of balancing out their lives. We have tried not to tell them "NO, you can't do that", but instead, teach them to say no themselves. We try to instill in them what’s right from wrong. If we can’t trust our own pupils then how does that reflect us, ME, the teacher? Anyway, at the risk of sounding redundant, I will sign off here.

Oh yeah. If you want to peruse for yourself, feel free to use my myspace. You don’t have to have an account.


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!