Saturday, September 20, 2003 But what has it got in its pocketses, eh?
12:13 PM
Life here at Grand Valley is working out great this year. I'm getting schoolwork accomplished, working in the meantime, getting involved in religious groups, and experiencing tremendous spiritual growth. Nothing has been able to bring me down and I have a strong feel that since I've come closer to God, nothing can bring me down anymore. But still, despite my renewed faith in God, I still sometimes think about the future. I know there's really no reason to worry. Because with God all things are possible. It's more of an anticipatory excitement as opposed to a fear that I'm feeling. What gifts and blessings will God shower on me next? In what new ways will I be able to surrender to God's will and demonstrate my faith?
I suppose the best way of figuring that one out is to ask God Himself. Pray to Him and look for every opportunity to spread His message. Tell people what has changed in my life. Tell people how other people around me have been affected by His love. I may not ever know what God has lined up for me next. In fact, I'm almost positive I won't. But, I can be prepared for it. I can continue my daily walk in the Lord and know that if I'm keeping Him first in my life ALWAYS, then I will always find that new way of doing His will. No matter how many times it takes me to figure His plan out, God will continually revel Himself to me until I figure it out. What a truly awesome blessing to know that you have all the time you need to accept God into your life and to find out what He needs from you. And yet, once you have accepted Him into your life, it takes no time at all to figure out what you need to do to turn your life around. He starts working through you faster than you can ever imagine. He's probably been telling you what you've been doing wrong for a long time. You've probably heard his voice before. And yet, you've never listened. It's when you've truly brought Him into your heart to you start to hearken to His voice and it's through listening that your life is turned around. If you haven't listened to Him ever, do it now. Just once, listen to Him telling you what to do. I guarantee you'll never want to go a day without hearing His voice again.
For the sake of my sociology class, I will be Dutch for the duration of class time. I will essentially demonstrate that I believe certain things about adolescent sexuality. That it's okay for my 16-year-old child to sleep at home with his or her boyfriend or girlfriend. That if my child is in a relationship for a solid 5 or 6 months it's acceptable for them to have sex, especially since they're very likely to use contraceptives. Now, this generalization of the Dutch is based on only 17 parental couples. So, I in no way fully believe that this attitude is representative of ALL Dutch. And well, of course, the American attitude I was presented with is not representative of ALL Americans. It's definitely interesting to see how two different 'Western' cultures handle teenage sexuality. In many ways I'm proud of American parents for their firm belief that it is in no way acceptable for teenagers to have sex. Because, well, that's the way I believe too. It's so funny how that attitude can affect teenagers though. In this article, the author explained that American girls 'seek love but are unable to experience themselves as sexual objects' while boys 'are excited about sex but express hostility toward girls and fear of commitment.' Now of course, this is a generalization. So all of you boys and girls out there, although I know you're all smarter than this, please don't freak out. This is just what the article said. When the author discussed the Dutch teenage attitude towards sex, she wrote, 'while Dutch boys are more likely than Dutch girls to want or approve of sex without emotional intimacy, they both regard a relationship or a strong emotional bond as the most preferable context within which to have sex.' So despite the fact that it's far more acceptable for Dutch teenagers to have sex, their concept of a sexual relationship is amazing. It's definitely a step up from the American perspective, but by no means is it acceptable to my standards. But, since I'm a Christian, it's pretty clear where I stand on sexual relationships. In no way is sex outside of marriage acceptable. Granted, I'm not going to condemn you to Hell for it and I'm not going to dissociate myself with you if you do it. There'd be no point in that. Just know how I feel about it.
Needless to say, being Dutch for a day is definitely going to be a challenge. Since I certainly don't agree with the Dutch approach, I'm not sure how willing of a participant I can be. Class wil be most interesting.