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{Heart4Teens.com} *Boiling Frogs* ______________________________________ If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of teenagers everywhere! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, you can join Heart4Teens.com readers around the world by visiting: http://www.Heart4Teens.com/Heart4Teens Visit our inspirational web site to read all the past articles in our archives and view the tons of resources we have there for teens! http://www.Heart4Teens.com/Teen_Stories _________________________________________ Over 64,000 people have listened to popular Chicken Soup Author Michael T. Powers' free inspirational message entitled: "Breathing Life into Others". If you aren't one of them just visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com and click on the link to listen to the free streaming audio message! _________________________________________ Boiling Frogs by Kara Powell and Kendall Payne I know a therapist who has a folder in her office that she keeps pictures in. The pictures range from humans to nature to animals to colors, mostly pulled out of modern magazines. When her younger, less talkative clients, come to their session, she brings out the folder. She asks them to choose a picture of the day and a picture of the week. After they've made their selections she'll say something along the lines of, "hmmmmm. that's an interesting choice. (While nodding her head and furrowing her brow) Now tell me, why did you pick that one?" And with that, therapy has begun. By listening and considering carefully their picture choices, she opens them up to talk about their feelings before they even realize they're doing it. Conversation is easier when you can talk about someone's feelings towards "something" instead of talking about their feelings about themselves. One day a client left a Teen People magazine in her office. The therapist, in her mid-fifties, was not an avid Teen People reader, and decided to throw it in the trash. Then she remembered her picture folder, sat down and began to flip through the pages looking for pictures. After looking at every single page in the entire magazine, (cover to cover!), she closed it without pulling a single picture. There was nothing even remotely appropriate to put in her file. Every shot of a woman was borderline pornographic. Either the women had cleavage hanging out of their blouse, a skirt so short you couldn't wear it in public, or pants so tight and pulled so low you could almost see pubic hair. Every shot of a man and woman together was sexual, either in suggestion or actuality. She was shocked. For the first time in a long time she was faced with the realities that young people are faced with every day. She remarked to me, "There is so much pressure on young girls to be sexy!" I looked back at her, momentarily stunned silent at this incredible grasp of the obvious and brilliantly replied, "no-duh!" Next she asked me a strange question (that's what they're licensed to do. Ask strange questions with apparently no obvious meaning and arrive at an obscure conclusion that makes you cry most of the time!) She asked, "Do you know what a frog would do if you put it into a pot of boiling water?" "Ummm.. Jump out?" I said with a stupid, antagonizing smile on my face. "Exactly! (She was not deterred from making her point by my inability to be serious) because it's hot and it will kill him if he stays in it. Having been just dropped into the pot he recognizes it's potential to cook him!" "Its like his natural instinct." I added. "Yes," she said. "But if you took that same frog, even with all his natural instinct, and put him in a pot of cold water on a stove top that was slowly heating up, he wouldn't realize the temperature was rising, and therefore would never jump out. Even when it starts to boil!" "Bummer." I said sounding like Keanu Reeves in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." I'll admit, it was not my finest or most poetic conversation ever. As I thought about this sad little analogy of the boiled frog, I realized what she was trying to get me to see. Most times I'll get out of a situation immediately when I feel uncomfortable immediately. The situations that slowly heat up are the ones that burn us! This therapist did not grow up watching Britney Spears strip tease on MTV in the morning over a bowl of CHEERIOS before heading out to school. She didn't have friends who wore their jeans so low on purpose so that guys could see their g-string underwear. She didn't have school shootings. She didn't have a 50% (or whatever it is) divorce rate. She didn't know the meaning of anorexia or bulimia. She didn't have porn websites at the touch of a button. And so she, like the first frog, looks through the Teen People magazine and says to herself, "Ouch! This is hot! Get out or you're gonna die!" Our generation is like the second frog. We've been in the water as long as we can remember. It's getting hotter and we can't tell. We were born in this pot, and maybe that gives new meaning to the words of Jesus when he says, "I assure you that unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3) Maybe he sees that we are immersed in a culture that is set up to destroy our self-esteem, bent on keeping us from living out God's purpose for our lives, turning our attention from committing our lives to God and living out his love to keeping up superficial appearances and envying what others have. If we stay in this heating water it will eventually, ever so slowly and without warning.kill us spiritually. Jesus offers us a new life. I never thought I could learn so much from a therapist and a frog! Taken from "Mirror, Mirror" by Kara Powell and Kendall Payne , copyright 2003, Youth Specialties/Zondervan. Used by permission. Order the book here: http://www.youthspecialties.com/product/248868 _________________________________________ Thought For the Day: "Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money." Verse for the Day: "A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." Luke 12:15 Teen's Thought For The Day: "Who is the fool. The fool or the person that follows?" Parent's Thought For The Day: "A mother has, perhaps, the hardest earthly lot; and yet no mother worthy of the name ever gave herself thoroughly for her child who did not feel that, after all, she reaped what she had sown." -- Henry Ward Beecher Coach's Thought For The Day: "Young people need models, not critics." -- John Wooden Deep Thought For The Day: "Give blood - play hockey." __________________________________________ Author MICHAEL T. POWERS www.Heart4Teens.com Contributing Author to Chicken Soup for the Teen's Soul on Love and Friendship and 25 other inspirational books. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 _________________________________________ ALL-STAR Ministry --The Youth Church of Faith Community Church in Janesville, WI If you are in 6-12th grade and live in the southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois area and would like to check us out, we meet every Sunday night from 6:30-8:00 PM at Faith Community Church which is located at 2931 Lucerne Dr. in Janesville, WI. (About 3 blocks south-east of The Skating Place.) All-Stars: 6:30 - 8:00 PM Sunday nights! Open to all youth grades 9-12. The Outlet: 6:30 - 8:00 PM Sunday nights in the Multi-Purpose Room! Open to all youth grades 6-8. Currently we have students from Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Janesville Craig, Janesville Parker, Marshall, Franklin, Orfordville, Clinton, Beloit Memorial, Beloit Turner, South Beloit, and Hononegah. E-mail me back if you have any questions about our weekly meetings or would like to come to any of our events that are listed below... We have way too much fun and then, most importantly, talk about issues that are relevant to you as a teenager. Upcoming Topics: Sunday April 2 -- It's the End of the World as We Know it, and I Feel Fine! Sunday April 9 -- The Easter Multi-sensory Experience! Sunday April 16 -- Easter (No All-Stars! Spend time with your family!) Sunday April 23 -- Spring Creek Players Present: The Last Convert (Play starts at 6 PM!) Sunday April 30 -- The Choices We Make Sunday May 6 -- Finding God in Narnia _______________________________________________ Teen Community Groups 6:30 - 8:00 PM Wednesday nights (September though May) These groups are limited to no more than ten teens and are split into Jr. High and High School ages. This night is for those teens who want to dig deeper than what we do in All-Stars, but may not be ready to be a part of the Xtreme Teens. These cell groups will also be doing special activities with each other as the year goes on to build community. Jr. High age meets at Kent and Rachel Martin's house: 1324 E. Racine St. (Call 373-0886 if you have any questions!) High School age meets at Matt and Kristi Kauffman's house: 4339 Fox Hills (Call 758-1243 if you have any questions!) Xtreme Teens Xtreme Teens meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30 - 8:00 PM all year round at the Powers' house. This group is very extensive with weekly homework, memorization, service projects, etc. Students interested in this group will have to fill out an application, provide references as to why others think they should be involved with this, and sign an agreement as to what is expected of them. Admission into Xtreme Teens is on a case by case basis. Contact Pastor Michael for more details! |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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