web 2.0 suicide: are your students on the digital ledge?
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The term social suicide is one that has been around for awhile. I looked up the most popular definition on The Urban Dictionary and this is the one that rose to the top:
SOCIAL SUICIDE: commiting an act or acts that alienates one from their social scene or social circleto kill one’s social life
Example: John commited social suicide by asking out his ex-girlfriends best friend barely a week after they broke up.Example: Veronica is commiting social suicide by talking behind her friends backs.
- Create online hours and offline hours—-one of my friends wrote on the pillows of our senior girls last year this quote that stayed in my mind forever—”Nothing good happens after midnight”. That goes for the internet and even begins earlier…don’t go on the networks past 10. Often times you start posting things or saying things that you would not want to be said and those comments can’t be erased very easily.
- Take some digital breaks each week — If you begin to feel like your online presence is becoming demanding or even addictive, begin to schedule digital breaks or sabbaths. Tell someone or even post in your status that you are “off this week” or “this day”. Don’t let your profile or status own you.
- Consider the legacy… It’s hard to believe that a digital presence could cause havoc on your physical presence but it can. Your digital fingerprint leaves a legacy…think about what your profile will say when you begin to try and shake it, or change it.
What other boundaries do you have or tell your students to think about when they are online? Share them below.
cool idea for an after school activity
I’m always looking for some creative activities to do with girls at our retreats or to pass on to lifegroup leaders. I stumbled across this recipe at skiptomylou.org Go there for the wonderful pictures. I cut and paste the recipe here. I think this would be a fun activity for a slumber party or a retreat weekend. The possibilities of gummy candy is endless:) Hope someone can use this idea.
Homemade Gummi Candy recipe!
All we needed was 1 -3 oz box of flavored gelatin and 2 – 1/4 oz packages of unflavored gelatin, water and candy molds. (we used two candy molds)
Place 1/3 cup water in a small sauce pan. Sprinkle the Jello and unflavored gelatin over the water. Let sit 5 – 10 minutes. (If you like chewier gummi candy add in another packet of unflavored gelatin.)
Place sauce pan over medium heat and stir until gelatin is dissolved, about 2-5 minutes. When mixture is liquid and all gelatin has dissolved, remove from heat. Let cool a minute and then pour into a container that is easy to pour from. I use a small ceramic creamer pitcher.
Fill molds. If you save the inside of the advent calendar for projects like do, it works perfect! The sheet of star molds worked a bit better than the bears because they are a bit deeper. However, I must say we were just needing an activity so our standards were pretty low— we thought they all turned out great!
Allow to cool completely, about 20 minutes. They may be placed in a refrigerator for about 10 minutes if the kids are eager.
Once cool, the backs can be lightly dusted with corn starch, if desired.
Peel the gummi candy out of the molds. Don’t be shy, you won’t hurt them when peeling them from the molds. No need to oil the molds!
Enjoy!
Make homemade stickers with the unused unflavored gelatin packets.Notes: we felt the blue ones weren’t flavorful enough. Next time we will try 2 boxes Jello, 3 packages of unflavored gelatin and 1/2 cup water.
What’s the skinny on dieting and teen’s bones?
I want to call our attention to something that is not surprising but perhaps may allow us to present a wake-up call to our daughters and those we mentor. I’m wary of posting this on girlsminister.com because I do not want to see this article create panic and then cause girls ministries to hold retreats that make girls take the Presidential fitness test or something crazy like that. I am putting this in the toolbox though to help you have your eyes open to the individual conversations that allow you to speak into a girls heart that may be struggling with dieting.
This is a conversation we should have with girls who have let us know they are trying to lose weight for this new year. With all the ads, marketing, and poor modeling they have seen from the women in their lives…I don’t think many girls know what healthy living even looks like. I do not use the word dieting—because it comes with a lot of baggage. Our daughters and the girls we mentor need to know a quick fad diet may give them immediate results but they are actually harming themselves for their future. I recently read an article from Los Angeles Times and from The UK press that stated:
Professor Jon Tobias, leader of the research, says: “There is a good deal of pressure on teenage girls to be thin, but they need to be aware that this could endanger their developing skeleton and put them at increased risk of osteoporosis.
Click here for the full article
“Puberty is an important time of bone growth… thickness of the bone is still continuing to develop,” Tobias said. It’s also the time when girls start dieting to control weight and cease to engage in rigorous physical activity, Tobias said — a dangerous combination.
With all of the pressure to be a size 1 or 0, I’m afraid girls do not realize that they may be doing great damage to their bodies just so they can fit within a size. There’s loads of articles that support this, but this one just caught my attention today. So what do we do to help girls know how to eat and excercise healthy? A teen girl needs to eat differently than an adult because they are still growing. We need to help girls understand that while the mirror tells them one story, the nutrition they are putting into their bodies or not putting into their bodies may be telling a different story in their bones and muscles. If they start uttering the words—diet, ask them if they are doing any excercise. If they say no, ask them if you can help them figure out some healthy ways to living that help them to move away from dieting. Let’s learn healthy living and take dieting out of our vocabulary. Besides anything that has the word “die” in it isn’t a place we want to focus right? Let’s focus on little changes that we can do for a lifetime…and not a fad diet that we do for a weekend. Help the girls that are in your life that may be living dangerously in these areas not to eliminate food, but to evaluate the types of food they are putting into their body and the amount of movement their bodies are getting each week. and remember—pray that these conversations will lead you to the root of the issue that is prompting these body image problems. Remember to be cautious about what words are coming out of your own mouth regarding your body. They could be taking their cues from you. If it is a struggle for some of the girls you are with, commit to pray about it together. With this said—I am not a health expert nor a nutritionist. If there are girls that are struggling addicts with food and excercise, you need to make sure they are finding help.
2010 Girls Ministry Forum for leaders and girls
I’m excited to be leading a conference for the Girls Ministry Forum at Lifeway in February 26-27. I would love to take some students and leaders from our church with me. If you are interested in attending, let me know. If you don’t go to Brentwood Baptist and are interested—you need to be there. I know Shelley Johnson is a great worship leader—not to mention there are some other great conference leaders to help facilitate some great conversations if you are wanting encouragement as a leader who works with girls or if you are a student leader. That’s the neat thing about this event—it’s for both adult leaders and girls who are leaders to their peers. So I hope that you will make it a priority to be in Nashville for this event. Click on the link below to register or if you are a Brentwood Baptist leader…send me an email or reply to this post and we’ll see if we can get a group together.
Our featured artist gets a spot on Threadsmedia.com
Several months ago, we introduced you to Sara Beth and her songs. She’s continuing to be involved in some new projects. Keep your eyes on the lookout for this one, and get to know her a little bit better. She’s an amazing worship leader! P.S Sara Beth…are you available for Snowball this year—it’s March 5-7.
Sara Beth Geoghegan EPK from Jeff Venable on Vimeo.
Happy New Year: Girlsminister.com gets an upgrade!
That’s right…the above picture is a splice of the new toolbar that is embedded on girlsminister.com. This plugin allows readers to talk with each other and engage with girlsminister.com in ways we’ve not been able to do before. Some of the features you need to check out:
- Click on the Translate button and see what the site looks like in any of the 11 languages available.
- Click on facebook community. This is one feature I am very excited about. When you use facebook connect, you can stay on the site and utilize facebook to talk with readers from girlsminister.com in a very cool way.
- In addition, we will be using twitter and facebook to announce when we will be live chatting from the site. You can check out the chat room by clicking on Join Chat.
So many new ways to connect! We’re very excited that now this site can offer some immediate ways for the community to talk straight from this site. Of course you will want to join mygirlsministry.com for more indepth networking features. mygirlsministry.com offers a real time e-store and the first girls ministry social network for those who work with teen girls and their families. It’s free so if you enjoy the networking here….make sure to check it out! Oh and Happy New Year!
- Girardier 2.0 update: we're having a boy! Technology was so good we could even see black rimmed glasses and converse shoes:). #fb
- RT @mikeglenn: New Post by @amyjogirardier - girls minister of @brentwoodbc on Self Esteem - http://ow.ly/6IErg #truthfulconversations
- Proud of the students I prayed with this morning at their school flagpole. Now I'm moving to breakfast. See you at the Puffy Muffin;).
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