O-B-E-D-IENCE!!!

Well... as you all know, this week we talked about the ever popular subject of obedience. Our game of Yahtzee illustrated the need for rules in that we saw what happens when everyone simply does whatever they want. CHAOS ENSUES!!!! Our life is no different! God has given us parents as 'caretakers' and He expects us to learn how to submit to authority by learning how to obey them. It might sound simple... but in all reality, it isn't!! The most important thing to remember, though, is that your obedience to your parents speaks volumes about your relationship with God. Take some time to evaluate that this week. I have also challenged you all to try to honor your parents this week. What will you do to show your parents respect??? Post your comments here!!!!

Don't be a brownie that's fallen on the floor...

We had a great turnout tonight! We discussed clothing tonight. We talked about what we should and should not be wearing as young women (and men) of God. We talked about why our schools have dress codes. Then we looked at a couple of store ads and really looked at what they were selling. By dressing inappropriately, we give the wrong message to the opposite sex. Instead of getting love and appreciation, we are pushed toward what the clothes are advertising and end up in premarital sex. This is totally against God's plan for you. We brought in brownies tonight. If we passed your brownie around the room and everyone touched it, would you want it for yourself? Save sex for marriage. Remember the blue tape on the floor? You don't want to cross it. Crossing over the tape is crossing over into premarital sex. How close to the tape do you want to be? The closer you are to the tape, the easier it is to tumble across. A lot to think about. Have a great week and see you on Sunday!

Husbands, Love your Wives
Since we already covered what to look for in a guy and why your future mate needs to be carefully selected by comparing their qualities to God's, this week we talked more about what we really, really want.
First, we played a game called Hot Seat, where each person was asked "what's your favorite...." for 2 minutes. Each girl had a turn sitting in the hot seat. The person who answered the most questions, Claire, won a teen guide to relationships book.
Then we took a quiz to see how much of our day is focused on guys, and how this can be potentially dangerous. After that, we talked about how our media portrays how girls should act and if there is pressure to act like this at school. Surprisingly, most of the girls said that they receive more respect if they are virtuous. (AWESOME!) We talked about what single girls really, really want from a sexual relationship: affirmation, security, love. And do they ever get it: NO. Finally we discussed how we can receive affirmation, security, and love from God. Because our future husbands are human and will not be able to give us the amount we require, no matter how well intentioned they are.
Have a great week ladies!
I Love all of ya
-Virginia

Red Flags

We started out with everyone having a red flag and a green flag. While wearing blackened out glasses to keep from being influenced by others, we listened to several situations and determined if they were "ok" - green flags or "something's not quite right" - red flags. These situations were all between boyfriend/girlfriend in a typical situation and sometimes not so typical situation. The red and green flags were counted for each situation and then we discussed them. This activity was not intended to take up the whole time but it kind of did. We did get to do a lot of talking about how that little twinge in the gut is a "red flag" trying to go up and we shouldn't just ignore it. This next Wednesday we will be discussing these "red flags" a little further and why we need to listen to them and how we can prepare ourselves to handle them appropriately when they do come up. Like the Boy Scouts, we need to "Be Prepared". Have a great week!

Submission!!!!

This Sunday for Engage we started things off by playing a game. We each wrote something we were afraid of on a piece of paper and tossed it into the middle of the table. Then each of us selected a paper at random and related how that can be scary for us too--without knowing who's paper we had. Our fears included everything from fear of failure to fear of not having any real friends.

For Inform: In my own experience, submission comes only through trust. Fear is not necessarily removed, trust just allows us to get past our fears and let go. (Not that we turn our brains off, as Nathan mentioned in the list of all the things submission is not.) We talked about how it's hard to submit to our parents when we feel like they don't understand us. This is where trust comes in too. Because our husbands will understand in some ways less than our parents. But we are first responsible to God, who knows what we need more than we do.

For Application we said that we need to start practicing being respectful to teachers, parents, anyone in authority; regardless of whether we agree. I talked about how I didn't agree with my parents that going to a dance with my friends was morally wrong. But my parents did; which would make it morally wrong for me to go. So just because we may not think something is wrong, if our parents tell us we can't do it, we are not submitting to them or to God if we do it anyway. (Unless of course, they are telling us we can't obey God).

Ladies, I will be praying for you that we will continue to practice this skill with patience.

'Love ya'll
Virginia

SICKNESS

There will be no youth group on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, due to illness. All activities at church have been cancelled. Prayer meeting will be at Mary Kuieck's home.
We will be discussing "Red Flags" on Wednesday, February 24. Think about what ones are obvious and some that are more subtle.

Valentines Day Discussion

Well, this week we didn't really keep to the standard inform, engage, apply method. But this is a list of everything we covered:
1. We talked about the importance of dating Christians, and how to read what boys say to you. For example, "What your parent's don't know won't hurt them"--how do you know he won't say this about you someday? Or if a boy says to you, "trust your parent's judgment", is he strong or is he weak and why is this an important trait later in life?
2. We discussed how much we should sacrifice for a boyfriend and the dangers from giving too much of yourself--losing your identity, poor grades, losing friends, losing parent's trust....
3. We talked about why people stop loving each other and move on and how to practice being respectful even when it isn't easy with our parents.
4. We ended with Nathan's questions from the sermon: will the person I'm interested continue to choose me if I am just me and not who he thinks I am? Am I becoming the kind of person that will continue to choose the future 'him'?
Hope you all have a great week! I loved our discussion and your insights! Awesome job participating and making sure everyone gets a chance to talk. See you next Sunday.
-Virginia