E – Living—Online Life and Long-Distance E – Relationships

Yet again, the young women in our summer “True Woman Teen Discussion Course” (Sunday school class) are knocking me over with their sincerity, intellect, love and faith. Being around them makes me want to be around Jesus more! And I have to say that’s just about the best commendation I can give of any person.

This past week, the title and subtitle of our class were:

E-Living—Online Life and Long-Distance E-Relationships
What is wise and appropriate re: Facebook, Twitter, relationships via cell-phone/texting/email etc.

I started the handouts with a quote from Tim Challies from a book that I highly recommend:

‘Never before in human history have people lived their lives so thoroughly and consistently mediated as we do today … Soon we will be spending more time in the glare of a screen than we spend outside of it … classrooms, church, work, at play, at leisure; mounted on seats in front of us in airplanes, hang from the ceilings of our vans and SUVs. Screens are in our desks and in our pockets, rarely more than a few feet away.’ The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion

It was so good to learn from these young women—not growing up in the world of online living, there is a LOT I don’t know. But my favorite part of the class (as always) was seeing them dig deep in God’s Word and wrestle through how the Scriptures REALLY apply in their REAL lives. (The discussions re: the doctrine of the church and the whole idea of accountability / rescue from sin / church discipline were particularly rewarding for me. Oh! And the discussion of cyber-bullying and peacemaking was fascinating.)

I have to say … there is nothing like discussing theology with teenagers to take it out of the realm of some Suzy Spiritual “idea” and truly make it real. (Can you tell that I just LOVE spending time with these women?)

Only two more classes to go this summer:

Week 5: Duplicitous Living (acting like a Christian in certain situations but not others)

Week 6: Romantic Relationships / the Power of Eros and the greater power of the gospel re: purity of thought and action

I’m going to miss our weekly discussions once they end again for the year. Maybe we can get a monthly coffee house chat going or something …

Thanking God for His family!
— Tara B.