1 Peter 3:3-4

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewellery or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. - 1 Peter 3:3,4

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Societies Silly Standards

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a great week. Today I will post about the standards of society these days and how they keep dropping.

In 1732 a boy called George was born in northern Virginia to a middle-class family. When he was eleven years old he lost his father. Even though his peers never considered him very bright, he applied himself to his studies and mastered geometry, trigonometry an surveying (think calculus and algebra) by the time he was sixteen.
At seventeen years old, George had the chance to put his studies to use at his first job. Official surveyor of Culpeper Country, Virginia. This wasn't a boys job. For the next 3 years he endured hardships of frontier life as he measured and recorded previously unmapped territories. His measuring tools were heavy logs and chains.
After 3 years as a surveyor in Virginia, the governor appointed George to the state militia as a major, a very high rank. Then when word came that the French were entering Ohio Territory, George was ordered to lead a midwinter expedition over hundreds of miles to assess their strength and to warn them to leave - which he successfully did.
By age 22 he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel, and by age 23 he was commander in chief of the entire Virginia militia. After 20 years he became the commander in chief of the Continental army in the Revolutionary War, and eventually he became the first president of the United States - George Washington. (Do Hard Things - Alex & Brett Harris, pg31 and 55]

Mr Washington's actions and decisions in his teenage years affected his whole life. Today teenagers are hardly expected to make their bed, let alone become a surveyor of the Culpeper Country. Expectations have drifted from where they should be. And unfortunately it doesn't make us teenagers, look good. The normal behaviour for teenagers these days is to party, not have many responsibilities, have very little respect for ourselves and others, to mouth off at people when we're mad, the list goes on. I am sure than majority of you reading this can think of a few people who relate to this. This last week I have been reading a book called Do Hard Things by two teenagers, Alex & Brett Harris. It is an amazingly moving book that has really got me doing some soul-searching. Anyone who has the means to get a copy of this book, I encourage you to go to the ends of the earth to get it. It will change your life and change this generation for the better.
"God sets His standards high so that there is ALWAYS room for improvement."
- Unfortunately I don't know who said this, but it has been a huge motivator for me.

Teenagers around the world today aren't trying to reach their full potential and be the best they can be. Instead they look around and say, 'Well I'm a much better person than her!'. And we compare ourselves to others. We can't improve if we are always comparing to others, we need to compare to ourselves TO OURSELVES, and try to match what God expects of us. That's the only way we are able to see an improvement, and motivate ourselves to be better. We are all sinner's and deserve the death penalty. We should try to  improve the worlds standards rather than settle for the world's standards.

Challenge yourselves and try to identify the worlds standards and then see what God has to say about them.


God bless,
Taleisha & Meggie.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Meggie!!
    Wow, I am so excited to finally catch up with your musings again!! I really like your new blog, and the background is lovely!!

    Blessings
    Chloe Lou
    P.S. I love the verse at the bottom of the title - it has a real meaning to it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Chloe!

      Thankyou!! :D Stick around for our topic, well be posting (hopefully) next week.

      Blessings,
      Meggie

      Delete
  2. Hey Meggie :) I haven't been able to read your blog posts in a while sadly but I found a couple of minutes to spare and decided to read your post. This was something God made me aware about a long time ago and my church even had a conference where they showed Alex and Brett's conference. I understood it but it didn't convict me. Now that you wrote about it so many things came to mind about all the things God convicted me about later in! I needed this so bad right now in this time of my life and with everything God is teaching me, so THANK YOU! Also I don't think we should compare ourselves to ourselves instead we should always be comparing ourselves to GOD's STANDARDS :) Its definitely humbling when we do so.

    Love with what you guys have been writing about so far :) looks very encouraging!

    God bless you,
    Laurent

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Laurent,
    I am so glad that this post helped you. Both Meggie and I love hearing it, it really encourages us to keep going. Knowing that this blog is actually helping others is our prayer and it's a huge boost of confidence when we see our prayers answered through young women like you. Thanks for reading! If you have any requests for topics in the future please let us know :)

    God bless,
    Taleisha

    ReplyDelete