Arachnophobia

Here was is a picture from Pakistan where a bunch of spiders covered this tree. I don’t know about you but I would be freaked out seeing this.I got this from an article from Wired.

5 Ways to Make Your Kids Hate Church

A great article to share with parents: Article

Who Knew…Video Games and Stress

Cha Cha released on their website the pro’s and con’s about playing video games. To summerize their report, the pro was playing video games like Tetris can help reduce the recurring flashbacks for those who with post traumatic stress syndrome. The report came from a study done by a journal, PloS One. The reason why Tetris seemed to help those deal with stress was they would be distracted.

The con’s were those who are considered “addicted” were prone to have aggressive behaviors and become depressed. They were more likely to use drugs and alcohol. Also gamers were more likely to drink caffeinated beverages such as energy drinks, soda, and coffee.

In a study by Kay S. Hymowitz, that 12 to 17 year old males will play video games for over 2 1/2 hours every day. I do not know what is considered addicted but for someone to play that long or longer a day seems like an “addiction.” I am no way condemning video games but I am asking the parents to monitor their child’s video game playing, content and length.

Here are some questions to ask:

• Do I know what the rating of the games are that my child is playing? To see the ERSB click Here.
• If they play online do I know what they talk about with other gamers?
• Do I monitor their length of play?
• Do I set up time frames when they can and cannot play? For example, they can play after homework, 6:00pm and must be turned off by 7:00pm.
• Do you notice a behavior change; becoming more aggressive or language has changed?
• Do you pick certain days they cannot play at all?

These questions should be asked as a parent so you can be more involved and help them in the ways of the Lord. The Bible talks about not having anything take the place of God. Video games can become someones god if they allow it to control their lives. Be proactive!

For the article by Cha Cha click: VIDEO GAME

For the article by the Kay S. Hymowitz click: Article

 

Too Much Text can Lead to Sex

In an article by the Associated Press, Tuesday November 9 said that “Sex, drugs more common in hyper-texting teens.” Their study showed them that teens that text 120 times a day or more are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than kids who don’t send as many messages.  The studied showed they were three and half more times to have sex than their peers. Another interesting fact that the study revealed was that those who sent over 120 text a day would also spend three or more hours a day on Facebook or other social networking websites.

Dr. Scott Frank who was the author of this study concluded that the number of teens are very susceptible to peer pressure and also have permissive or absent parents.

Have we started a monster with technology and cell phones? When you look at the advantages of them, being able to communicate with your children, the security of knowing where they are and what they are doing, it could be comforting. But what about the disadvantages such as the rise of  sexting (sending explicit images through your phone), not knowing what they are talking about or whom they may be talking with. Despite the disadvantages, technology creates an opportunity to communicate with your children about the dangers and advantages as well as expectations.

How well do you monitor? Here are some questions that can help.

• Do you know who your child is texting and what about?
• Do you ask your child to not delete the history and to show you periodically their sent and received messages?
• Do you know how many texts they send and have you established limits on how many they can send and what hours they can send them?

It is your responsibility as a parent to help train your child up and teach them to be responsible with using technology. It will require some work, and discipline and will create a little strife if it has not been established already but this monitored approach sure outweighs the regret and hurt that can come from not being monitored.

For the complete study of this article: Associated Press

What did you do in college?

In a post by Jim Liebelt wrote that more than 400,000 college students gamble online every week. I thought my late nights of Halo playing was bad! In a very addictive culture and in a time in a young adults life where there is more temptation and freedoms that await this is what we see. In the article we also see that it is not just college students but also high school students. For more information please read the Homeword blog. I guess this is an eye opener to parents to ask their children what they are doing and to check what they do online.

Criticism

I am sure just like most youth leaders out there, you will have your fair share of criticism given to you. Probably most of it is unwanted but some you seek. Within my first year or so of being placed in charge of the middle school ministry at our church, I faced a good amount of criticism. Some rightly so as I had and still have a lot of learning to do and some it was really hard for me to hear. I would seek godly counselor to just to make sure I would handle it correctly. It was hard, and I know I have grown in handling criticism but I am no where perfect with it.

I subscribe to youthministry.com’s newlsetter and they sent one dealing with criticism. As I read it, I thought it was very good about how to handle criticism. I would like to pass this on to you if you have not read it and put it in your resource bank so you can go to it when the time comes.

Grow through the Criticism Crucible