In this week episode of Month of Awareness: Social Media Predators "Is It Cute or Controlling" according to God’s Word. Scriptures:James 4:1, 7, Amos 3:3, Mark 7:14-15, 20-23, 1 John 4:11
Teen Bible Study Taught 'N Ten Minutes
Month of Awareness: Social Media Predators (Is It Cute or Controlling?)
"Yeah, come on. It's like that. It's like that." Hello and welcome to my young loyal listeners of Teen Bible Study Talk in 10 minutes. So what do you know? Word on the go. This podcast is brought to you by and produced by Real Time with the Bennett, where Real Talk happens all the time. I'm your host, Minister Bennett of today's episode, and my co-host is… the lovely sister Bennett as my husband affectionately calls me. Thank you for allowing and trusting us to be a part of your Christian walk. In this week's episode, we will be continuing our month of awareness social media predators. We will be discussing is this cute or controlling according to God's word. Hello our young loyal listeners and parents. This month we have been discussing social media predators. Again, remember age does not matter. Predators are looking for anyone that they can manipulate. Today we're going to talk about a different type of predatory manipulation, controlling friends and boyfriends or girlfriends. Some of you may have friends who can also become a predator and control you, getting you to do what they want. They make sly comments about your other friends and all of a sudden you find yourself judging that friend or friends and you no longer hang out with them. They make comments on your post making you male or female feel insecure about yourself and you take down that post. When you guys hang out, they may talk about not having money for something they really want and you just so happen to have the money and you buy it for them and then you find yourself always buying things for them. They may come over to your house maybe, make comments that are not cool at all about your house, your room or your family and all of a sudden you start thinking differently about your home and family and being into isolate yourself. It's mind control. Then one day you look up and you've lost good friends because of this predatory friendship which a person who has this they make you feel and think differently. Mind control, emotional control, mental control, it's all control. Some of you who are in high school may start dating. There are many times in relationships you may think oh my gosh oh they are they really really care about me. They want to spend all their time with me. Oh we hang out and go shopping. They pick out clothes for me. Oh I hardly pay for anything. They are always paying. Oh isn't that cute. They are so jealous when I talk to other people. But make sure that all of the alls, the cuteness and the newness don't turn into man. He or she keep blowing up my phone. They don't believe I'm where I say I am. Ayo stop playing. Don't be hitting me like that. That hurts. Seriously. What did I tell you about taking my phone and checking my messages? And this is when you know that things are heading in the wrong directions. When you hear yourself say why do you need my login information to my social media accounts? Red flags ding ding ding ding ding. We want you guys to be on alert. Whether you are in a relationship or friendship that you don't feel comfortable being in but you find that you can't fully break away from them. You just might be in a controlling situation whether physical, mental or emotional. It's all toxic and it's controlling and this later on will cause a lot of problems. So please do not be afraid to tell your parents or someone you trust. You are not to blame. You didn't ask for any of this to happen to you. So please don't be ashamed. Tell someone your mind and your life are at stake and they matter. So as the summer comes to an end and a new school year is ahead. Here are other ways to spot a controller. These are only a few because there are so many but we don't have enough time. They don't like being excluded from your plans. They always want to be hanging around. Don't respect your boundaries when you want your alone time. When you do hang out with others they are always texting or calling you non-stop checking on where you are and who you are with. They make you feel bad or guilty about spending time with your family and friends because they want all of their all of your time and attention. They want to be the center of your world. You are criticized constantly. Predators who are controlling try to make you lose your confidence in yourself. Sometimes they'll put you down in front of your friends or people that you know and then laugh about it making you feel small. You know it is a problem when you laugh along with him or her. That's not cute. It's controlling. They try to gaslight you meaning they twist the truth or your emotions so you might begin to question yourself. You might begin to think that you're crazy when you know you're not but that's what they do. They gaslight you to make it making you think that you're the problem. So again now that you do not have to suffer this type of predatory control talk to someone because love doesn't hurt you physically, mentally or emotionally. Be blessed and very attentive our young loyal listeners and parents. Sister Bennett kicked off week forward a month of awareness with another one. She did it again. I'm just going to do my part and keep it moving. This week is about relationships and applying principles of God to overcome bad actors or bad relationships or predators or people who don't like us. I've got two scriptures to drop in your spirit to help you recognize the enemy you can see every day. Yeah you can see these enemies each and every day by the things they do. James 4 1 and verse 7 says this. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? Verse 7. Submit yourselves into God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Controlling people, people who are bullies, people who are stalkers and people who are predators are all missing the same thing. Did someone say what are they missing? That's Jesus. People who are shallow and empty don't have the ability to love and show the compassion of Christ when dealing with people. It's more specifically you. This is obvious through their interactions the way they treat you, the way they actually don't treat you because you deserve to be treated a certain way with respect, honor and dignity. These people are being controlled themselves by a spirit of darkness and are motivated by hatred. Here's the thing. Aim is 3 verse 3 says this and is simply put. Can two walk together except they agreed? What that means is a person can't really come alone for the ride with you unless they agree with you. Your spirits have to be like minded and going in the same direction. They pretend to care to get in good with you to inflict mental abuse upon you and physical pain if you aren't careful. You have the greatest weapon of all against that and that is submitting fully to God because that's what he says. Submit yourselves then to God and resist the devil. Why do we have to first submit to God because it gives us the strength, courage and ability to resist the devil because we can't do that alone and that's why we need Jesus Christ. Mark 7, 14, 15 and 20 and 23. Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen to me, everyone and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. And verse 20 and 23 says this now. He went on. What comes out of a person is what defiles them for it is from within out of a person's heart that evil thoughts come sexual immorality, theft, murderer, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person. What did I say they didn't have? That is Christ. Everything they say or do to you that is not appropriate is motivated by evil within a person. This is why it is so, so, so, very important that we live a life wholly and acceptable to God. That those predators, those controllers, those haters, those people who envy us have a beacon of life, a beacon of light that they can model their life after instead of being a predator, being a controller, a bully person, whoever they are who is not a child of God. They can look at you and realize even though they're coming after you, they can realize like, wow, this person is standing on the word. They're standing on their morals. They're not caving into anything I do to them. They are standing tall and I wonder why and it would be that beacon of life that would change their lives. That they would see that this is no way to treat a child of God, a brother or sister in Christ. Father God, I come to you right now in your mighty, mighty name. As in that you forgive us for every sin, thought, deed or action. That we may come boldly before your throne of grace and petition you on behalf of your young loyal listeners, Lord God, that they, that you will have their, have your way in their lives, that you will change their outlooks, Lord God, that you will change what's inside of them, Lord God, that as you said in 1 Timothy, that you did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love and a sound mind. Look out, have your way, that they may stand the wiles of the devil coming through these predators and people and controllers and all these people that are against them, Lord God, that they may stand tall, stand ten toes down, Lord God, on your word, the word that you have given us, the word that you have placed within us, Lord God, have your way, that they may stand to be a beacon of life for a world that is out there trying to harm, bully, control, and hurt people, Lord God, have your way. Give them the courage, give them the witness, and give them the nobility, Lord God, because I know you can, because you've done it for me. I've seen you doing a billion times for others, Lord God. So we pray this right now in a mighty, mighty, something, you're not my name, and your mighty, mighty son, Jesus' name, and Jesus Christ, we pray amen. In summary, the importance of knowing all relationships are not created equal. Be vigilant, your life depends on it. I will close with this in a quote, "A person can't give what they don't have. If a person has not experienced true innocent love, then they are incapable of treating you the way you deserve to be treated as a child of God." 1 John 4 11 says this, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to also love one another." When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will feel unfair, but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth, just like you did. Jill Blakeway. As always, please don't forget to subscribe and share, so that you and your friends will get all future notifications when new and exciting episodes are uploaded and posted. Until next time, stay safe and live a life wholly and acceptable to God after all its reusable service. With this special thank you to LJ Productions for post-productions editing techniques used for this podcast. This podcast was sponsored in part by the Body of Christ Church in Waldorf, Maryland, pastor Kenneth E. Stewart, its Christian education ministry in association with Real Time with the Bennett. But real talk, what? You got it. Happens all the time. Yeah. It's like that.