Safe Internet Options for Our Girls

I want to protect my tween girl from the drama and danger, which comes with the online world. My solution: Keep her access to the Internet as limited as possible.

And let me tell you. This strategy has worked great.

Until now.

When I was growing up, the end of the school year meant exchanging phone numbers with all my friends. For my daughter (whose group of friends don’t have cell phones yet), it meant exchanging email addresses.

Email addresses? Really?

Then, our girl started making The Sullivan News, a weekly newsletter to send to our far away, family members, and the email question came up again.

And again my response was an email address? Really?

These exchanges prompted me to check out kid-friendly email options, and to share my new found knowledge with you. I’m not techy, and I craved two things: safe and simple.

What I discovered is there are companies who provide safe email access for your girl by giving her a taste of the freedom she desires and the ability for you to still supervise her online communication.

Today, I'm sharing about this very thing.

Follow me here.

Do you know some of the women involved in this ministry? If you are raising teen or tween girls, it's a must click.

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I'm still on a blogging break, but I will be back in full force soon. Can't wait to talk then!

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On Serving People Just Like Me and What to Do When a Scooter Crashes in Front of Your House

Last week, a group of people started a summer challenge, a challenge to see and love others better.

Author, Alene Snodgrass pushed us to think with her book Graffiti: Scribbles from Different Sides of the Street, and now, she wanted us to put action behind our thoughts in a study called Graffiti Summer (by the way, the book goes with the study and the study is free, free, free).

The goal for this week was to serve someone different than ourselves.

I decided to modify the assignment and focus on the first half of the goal: serve someone (I like to make my own rules and the "someone different" part of our assignment was throwing me off). See, it was the last week of school and serving others would be easy, but I didn't have time for this "someone different than me business".

Our family was already working on a cool gift for our favorite senior (who is easy to love because of her spunk and her heart).

We were planning a surprise appreciation breakfast for the staff at our youngest's preschool (they are easy to love because they love my daughter well).

Plus, we were giving extra attention to a life-long friend (who is easy to love because we have history).

There I sat, and I felt great. I was loving people, and it was easy because the people who line my life are good to me and loving them feels great. In fact, it's fun.

But the problem was all of the people who I wanted to serve were like me. They talk like me. We watch the same TV shows. They go to churches like mine. We show up at the same dance class.

I knew this wasn't the goal of our summer study, and I prayed someone different would show up. Even my prayer bordered selfish. I certainly didn't have time to search someone out. So, God could you just drop a person in my life?

The very same day someone ran a scooter into the rocks across the street from my house.

The only person who might ride a scooter in my neighborhood would be a teenager. Our neighborhood is too far out to be a destination for an adult, but there she was, an adult, and she was kicking and cursing and tossing her belongings on the lawn.

First thought: An adult on a scooter means DUI.
Second thought: Geesh, she is rough, and she curses a lot, and wow, that's a lot of Hello Kitty gear on one person, and I wonder why she won't stop kicking the scooter.
Third thought: God is so funny, like really funny.

That's how God works. If you are open to serving others, He will make it happen. Pray you need to meet someone different than you and He will crash a scooter in front of your house.

And when He does, you better quit making dinner. You better thank Him for always showing up and then, find out what you can do to help.

Here's to the perfect start of my summer and to God crashing people into our lives.

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If you are interested in participating in a summer challenge, go dig around Alene's place, and discover how God is pushing others to rethink ideas about serving others.

Do you seek out people who are different from you or do you wait for God to send them crashing in?

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One Way to Beat Your Fear of Falling

There is only one way to beat your fear of falling.

Force your feet to leave the slippery tile and jump.

Lean into the unknown and remember there is power in the act and not the result.

Today I pray ambition stomps all over fear and leaves her standing alone and dry at the side of the pool.

You've got this one.

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On Fridays, a few of us writerly types gather and write about the same prompt. Today's prompt: fall. The rules? No rewrites, no edits, no thinking too hard.

Tell us about an area in which you've been hesitant to jump into. A new friendship? Ministry idea? Different job? A move?

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Past Five Minute Writes:
Flaws and Freckles
Conversations in Tweendom
When Your Ancestors are Gypsies and Sailors

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