God Did Not Give Us a Spirit of Fear

We have pretty nerve racking things in store for in the next coming months and years.  This year so far has been filled with so many ups and downs.  I have been able to hold it together pretty good think considering everything that has gone on.  I'm looking forward to new adventures that we have in store, but I'm fighting the urge to get very nervous.  I know that no matter what happens that God's strength will get us through it.


For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7

We are Officially Wycliffe Members

Cameroon Link:

We are officially Wycliffe members. It was a really long application process, but we are finally accepted. The country of Cameroon has invited us to serve with them. We will be living in the capital city of Younde. "Cameroon enjoys relatively high political and social stability. It also has a more prosperous economy than most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, exporting raw materials such as oil and timber, as well as abundant agricultural products including coffee, cotton and cocoa."

"The tropical coastal areas of Cameroon receive copious amounts of rain, in some years the rain has exceeded 30 feet. In the northern areas, yearly precipitation amounts are much lower, averaging near 30 inches. Drought is a way of life in the far north.

Daily highs in the mid-80's are commonplace, and overall, mean temperatures average in the high 70's; slightly warmer in the south, and a bit cooler in the western mountains."

Some Fun Facts about Cameroon
* Population: 18,897,957
* Capital City: Yaoundé (1.4 million)
* Largest Cities: Douala, Yaoundé, Garoua, Kousséri
* Currency: CFA Franc
* Languages: French (official), English (official), and other African dialects
* National Day: 20 May, Republic Day
* Religions: Christian, Muslim, traditional beliefs

Always Lead By Example

Poem: I'd Rather See a Sermon

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day.

I'd rather you walk with me than merely point the way.

The eye is a more ready pupil than ever was the ear.

Good advice is often more confusing, but example is always clear.

--Heinrich Kopka

--From Focus on the Family radio broadcast, "Teacher of the Year" featuring Guy Doud. 

...I was important in the life of a child.

One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank, nor what my clothes looked like.

One hundred from now it will not matter what kind of school I attended, what kind of typewriter I used, how large or small my church, but the world may be a little better, because...
I was important in the life of a child. --Anonymous

In Honor of Teachers
You are the molders of their dreams
The gods who build or crush
Their young beliefs of right or wrong.

You are the spark that sets aflame
The poet's hand or lights the flame
of some great singer's song.

You are the god of the young, the very young
You are the guardian of a million dreams
Your every smile or frown
can heal or pierce the heart

You are a hundred lives, a thousand lives.
Yours the pride of loving them
And the sorrow too.

Your patient work, your touch
Make you the goals of hope
Who fill their souls with dreams
To make those dreams come true.

by Ronald Reagan

Therefore Encourage One Another...

1 Thessalonians 5:11: Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Throughout my years of middle school ministry, I have received many notes of encouragement from students and my fellow leaders.  I can not begin to say how much those mean to me.  I still have many of the notes on display around the house and in my Bible.  I am going to take them with me and keep them close as we continue to make plans to move.  One of the hardest parts of the thought of moving is knowing how many close friends I'm going to leave behind.  This is my way to bring you with me.  I hope that I continue to live up to the words they wrote.

Here are just a few:

• "I loved leading with you this year. You are a great person." - Naomi
• "I love your heart for kids. You shine...my friend...you shine." - Judy
• "You always are so happy. Thank you for encouraging others and my children." - Laura
• "I love your positive attitude & the joy that you carry with you always. Love ya sis." - Judy
• "You have a heart for God and it's been a joy watching you on your walk with Christ." - Jason
• "You have a great memory for names. Good way to love our kids." - Adam
• "How faithful & awesome you are. You have been a part of Oasis longer than I have. How special you make our events." - Chris
• "You rock, my friend. I have known ya for...well a long time and you have always have the same sweet smile & friendly lovable personality." - Loretta
• "You are awesome leader. You have taught me so much." - Dianna
• "It's great being a leader with you. You have so much insight. Thanks for all your wisdom." - Carole
• "Your dedication to Oasis is so appreciated." - Wendy
• "Hey gurl, I love you & you are a great girl. I hope you will always be here & I can count on you. Love you tons." - Jeanette

"You can teach what you know, but you will reproduce who you are."

This is a quote that a mentor of mine used to say often.  She had a lot of sayings like, "You can tell the students all about character and integrity and that God is real, but if the way you are living your life contradicts what you are saying, then you might as well stop talking because they aren't listening anymore."  Students can recognize a hypocrite a mile away.  Quotes like this make me nervous though, because I know that someday Steve and I will have kids or maybe I'll get involved in ministry again.  These little lives are going to be watching the way I live.  Am I living up to the high standard that I have set for myself?  Is my standard to high?  Is it high enough?  I try to keep in touch with as many of my former students as I can and it breaks my heart when I see one of them fall away from God.  I can't help but feel like I failed them as their leader.  What more could I have said?  What more could I have done?  Was I not modeling Christian behavior like I should have been?  Did I miss something in their lives?  I know that the students grow up and have other influences that may have lead them astray, but what could have I said to help them avoid those traps?  How can I love them better now that they messed up?  How can I show them that God still loves them despite anything they may have done?

If you have integrity, nothing else matters.  If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.  ~Alan Simpson

 The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right. ~William Safire

A Must-Try Recipe: Mali Peanut Butter Sauce (Tiga Dege Na)

Below is the recipe for Peanut Butter Sauce (Tiga Dege Na) that we ate on Monday of Total It Up.  It was really good.  The lady who made it sent us the recipe.
If we were in Mali, I would use everything fresh from the market and not use any canned items. However, since we are not in Mali, I use canned food since they are less expensive.  You can use the fresh tomatoes if you like, but I use tomatoes in cans.

1 14.5oz Can Diced Tomatoes
4 Cloves of Garlic-Pressed
1 lg Onion-Diced
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
about 1/2 of the Chicken (chunks/strips of beef can be substituted)
1/2 cup Peanut Butter with no sugar added
3 Okra Sliced Thin
4 Large Hunks of Pumpkin (or squash)
1/2 Head of Cabbage

Heat the first five ingredients in a large stew pan. Add a fourth of a cup of oil and the raw chicken (or beef). Brown the chicken in the tomatoes mixture for about 15 minutes and then cover the chicken with water. Add salt (I like to use Seasoning Salt) and pepper. Let the chicken simmer until the meat is done. Remove the chicken and set aside to cool and to remove from the bone. Put the Peanut Butter into a cup and then add water until the Peanut Butter looks more like chocolate pudding. Add the Peanut Butter to the Stew. Add the Pumpkin and Cabbage to the stew. Let it simmer until the veggies are done. Remove the veggies and add the Okra. Cook the okra until it has become part of the stew liquid. The Peanut Butter and the okra are the thickening agents in the stew. The Peanut Butter will burn on the bottom if it is not stirred often.  If you think that it is too thick then add water, if it seems to think then let it cook for a while longer or add more Peanut Butter. Put all ingredients in the stew pan and simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve over white rice and eat it with the right hand.
IT IS SO GOOD. I hope you enjoy it.
Serves approximately 10 people.

Total it Up: Thursday and Friday

Thursday was our final full day of classes. We did some more "Fun"etics and "Fun"ology.  In the evening, Steve and I got to eat lunch with a retired couple that lives on campus.  There is a beautiful apartment complex for retired Wycliffe workers.  They both served in Peru.  They met in Peru and have known each other for about 40 years but they have only been married for 4 years.  Don and his first wife served Peru at the same time Lucy was there. Don's first wife died some years ago.  After all these years, they find themselves both living in the apartments and they hit it off again.  Isn't it awesome how God brings people together?  One of the things I think I have loved most about this week is listening to the stories of the missionaries and hearing how God brought them to Wycliffe and what they have been doing.
After dinner, the Total It Up crew had a campfire and S'mores.  It was pretty fun, even though we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. 

Today was kind of a closing day.  We talked about what our next steps could be and basically debriefed the whole week.  We all got graduation certificates, so I guess we are officially graduates. :o)

Since after lunch, we have been a little on our own since the program is technically over.  We helped the leaders clean up a bit, took a walk, ate dinner, and went swimming in the pool.  At the pool, we met a missionary couple that is about to go to Papa New Guinea.  They are apparently Financial Peace grads, so it was fun to talk to them about their journey.  Now we are just relaxing in our rooms. It seems way to earlier to go to bed.  "Daddy" Steinbach is picking us up from here tommorrow morning.  We are going to spend the day with him and then we head home on Sunday afternoon.

I was a little nervous about this week at first, because I thought the classes were going to be really hard and way over my head. I don't have skills in Linquistics like Steve does.  I have actaully learned alot. I'm excited to see what God has in store for us next.  I don't think I will be serving in a Language role, but there are so many support/administrative and Computer/IT roles that, with a little more training, I could definetly do.  I'm really glad Steve talked me into going on the trip.

Total It Up: Wednesday

Today was a great day. I even enjoyed the Grammar class.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly where I fit into the Wycliffe organization, since I don't have an interest in languages like Steve does.  I'm learning a little more everyday.  It's been a pretty great week.  The campus is beautiful.  A few of the other girls and I walked the trails around the campus for about an hour tonight.  It was such a beautiful night.  It was a little hot, but not too bad.  It looked like it might rain, but it never did.  We brought umbrellas with us, just in case.

Tommorrow is the last full day of classes.

Total It Up: Tuesday

We have computer access today, so I can actually type in more than 160 characters.  Woo Hoo!
Today, we started with a tour of the campus.  Since there was so many of us, we actually watched a video of a tour, instead of walking around everywhere.  It was such a beautiful morning, so I was a little bummed about that.
Our second class was another Language Learning class.  We have been learning Mandarin.  I actually learned a few words. I'm not sure how long I will remember them though.  The rest of the day was Phonology and Ethnomusicology. Phonology is the study of sound and Musicology is how music and arts are used in Bible Translation.

Total It Up: Monday

Today was full of classes: Phonetics, Anthropology, Literacy, etc...All very good. Dinner was an African Meal. It was really tasty.

Total It Up: Sunday

We landed safely yesterday.
Today, we spent a fun day with the Steinbach family and Lizzy. Tommorrow, the classes start.

One More Day!

Tommorrow, we leave for our trip. I'm not sure if we will have access to a computer while we are down there or not. I'm going to attempt to post from my phone, for the first time, during the trip. Apparently, I only have 160 characters though. That's alot harder than I thought.

Summer 2010

For the past few weeks, I have been working about 60 hours a week.  I know for some that seems like way to much and for others sounds easy, but I'm starting to feel a little tired.  I love my jobs though, so I guess that's a plus.  I'm trying to make as much as I can with the second job, because it's going to be a busy and expensive summer. 

Steve and I taking a vacation during the first week of June down to Dallas, TX.  The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics is where Steve wants to do his Graduate work to enter Wycliffe.  We are visiting to attend a Total It Up week long workshop.

"This five-day course includes introductory classes on phonetics and phonology, grammar, language and culture learning, translation and semantics, as well as field reports, videos, and personal testimonies. Learn in a relaxed, informal setting with experienced translators from many different countries and language projects. Devotions, prayer time and group living build meaningful relationships between staff and students."

It should be a very stretching experience for me.  We also get to see one of my best friends, Lizzy, and her family while we are down there, so I excited about that too.
 
On top of that my cousin Joe is getting married in an amazing girl named Carrie in June and my brother is getting married in August.  My parents 30th Wedding Anniversary is also this summer.  Not to mention, we have 2 sister-in-laws that are expecting (one of them due very soon), one of my best friends, Tabby, is expecting in October, Steve's cousin had twins last month, my friend Esther is also expecting in the fall, our chef at work is pregnant (also due in October)...This summer/fall is apparently the time for babies.

And...Steve wants to do some work on the house this summer.  He wants to build a porch on the front, so we can sit out there when it's nice.

My Reading Goal: 10 Down, 2 More to Go

I had a goal this year to read one non-fiction books a month, for a total of 12 books, because I heard the average millionaire reads one non-fiction book a month.  I just finished my tenth book, so that means I have one month to read the last two.  I'm not sure what books I'm going to read yet.  This was much harder then I though, probably harder than it should have been. 

Proverbs 18:15 (New International Version)

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.

Here is a summary of the books I read so far:

1. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
2. Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey
3. Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson
4. Bridges Out of Poverty by Phil DeVol
5. Rhinoceros Success by Scott Alexander
6. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
7. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Richard Kiyosaki
8. Your First Two Years of Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
1. This was actually the second time I read this book.  I loved it again this time too.  This book is full of little tokins of wisdom.  I recommend it for anyone working with kids, not just in Youth Ministry.
1. "God is much more concerned by your being than your doing."
2. "Failure to see the difference between loving God and loving others can result in a ministry-focused life rather than a God-focused life."
3. "Faithfullness to the first commandment (loving God) results in obedience to the second (loving others).
4. Accountability: "Be courageous enough to invite a friend to lovingly ask you about your consistency, your desire, and the quality of your times with God."
5. "God doesn't need you to be a spiritual giant to lead students toward maturity."  God is mostly concerned for your heart.  As you walk on the journey and grow closer to Jesus, drag some students to follow you along the way.
6. When students start to follow you, it is very important that you are leading them in the right direction though.  Students will follow where you go more than they will ever listen to what you say.  It may feel like a burden, but it's actually a calling.
7. (1 Corinthians 11:1)  Students are like sponges. They soak up everything you say and do.
8. "Student leadership can allow them to use their skills of God's kingdom, interact with full-time ministers, and open their eyes to a unique way of spending their vocational lives."
9. "Effective students leaders advance the church, reach more people, grow in their spiritual journeys, and relieve adult leaders of some of the work load."
10. "Student leaders will challenge you with their readiness to serve, inspire you with their faith, and convict you with their pure motives...Invite them to serve, and be with them when they face trials in the future." "Most teenagers are dying for an adult to believe in them."
    
9. The 21 Irrefuttable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
1. The ideas in this book are pretty simple.  This is a must-read for anyone that is a leader or plans to become one.
1. "Character makes trust possible. And trust makes leadership possible. That is the Law of Solid Ground."
2. "People listen not necessarily because of the truth being communicated in the message, but because of their respect for the speaker."
3. "Champions don't become champions in the ring - they are merely recognized there."
4. "The Law of Sacrifice says you have to give up to go up."
5. "When the right leader and the right time come together, incredible things happen."
   
10. QBQ: The Question Behind the Question by John Miller
1. "What to really ask yourself to eliminate blame, complaining, and procrastination."  This is a book was a really huge smack in the face.  This is probably the place in my life that I struggle the most.  The lack of personal accountability is a problem. No organization or person can achieve goals or compete in the marketplace without personal accountability.
1. "Stress is a choice...Yes bad things happen: The economy sours, our business struggles, the stock market tumbles, jobs are lost, people around us don't follow through, deadlines are missed, projects fail, good people leave. But still stress is a choice...we choose are response." We choose to become angry.  We choose to worry.
2. Blame questions solve nothing. "They create fear, destroy creativity, and build walls."  Instead of brainstorming and working together to get things done, we "blamestorm" and accomplish nothing.
3. "Ownership: A committment of the head, heart, and hands to fix the problem and never again affix the blame."
4. "Managers don't change people. They can coach, counsel, teach, and guide, but no one changes another person. Change only comes from inside, as a result of decisions made by the individual."
5. No matter our role, someone is watching and emulating our behavior. "Modeling is the most powerful of all teachers."
6. Taking action may seem risky, but doing nothing can be an an even bigger risk. "Action, even when it leads to mistakes, brings learning and growth. Inaction brings stagnation and atrophy."
7. "Humility is the cornerstone of leadership."

Something to Ponder

I brought this question to my students!

A father and his, one and only, son love each other very much. The two are nearly inseparable. One day, the son asks his father if he can join him at the bridge. The bridge is where his father works as an operator - raising a drawbridge when a boat must pass and lowering it when the train arrives.
On the one day that his son joins his father at work, a train arrives early and the bridge is up. His son tries to alert his father the train is coming, but his father cannot hear him. So, the boy rushes to the base of the bridge to throw the switch manually, enabling the drawbridge to drop and let the train safely pass. But, as he tries, he falls into the drawbridge wheel and pulley mechanism. At that moment, from the tower, his father sees his son fall and the train coming toward the bridge at full steam. He has only a moment to decide. He must do one of two things .

a. Save his son and let the train wreck with hundreds of passengers on board (who will surely die when it plunges hundreds of feet into the icy waters below).
OR
b. Save the train by pulling the lever at the tower that will lower the bridge, but will cause his son to be crushed.

1. You're the father, what would you do if those were your only two options?
My girls thought the knew the "right" answer. I had to convince them that was no "right" answer. I try to get them to think outside the christian box. The "right" answer would be to save the people on the train and let your son die because that would segway nicely into the crucifiction comparison. I brought it in a little different direction. I asked my girls to ponder what they would really do. I don't have kids yet so i can't know for sure what I would do, but I so have friends that have kids. If it was my best friend's daugher, Kariana or one of my friend Chrissy's kids I dont think i would even hesitate. I have known these kids since they were born. They aren't my children but I would risk my life for these kids. Would watching Kariana die be worth saving 100 people that i don't know...I don't think it would be.
I know if I would be willing to save someone else's child that I would definetly save my own. When God looked down at his son dieing for all of us he could have stopped it but he didn't. God had all the power in the world to stop the crucifiction but he loved us so much that he let his son die. Aren't you glad that God isn't like us. Knowing that I couldnt watch my child die makes what God did so much more special. I can't even imagine how hard it must of have been for God to watch his son die.
I had my girls read John 3:16 and think about what that really meant. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son so that who ever believed in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

2. What if you were the son? How would you feel?
Would you understand what your father was doing or would you be thinking about self-preservation? Even Jesus asked God to change his mind about what was going to happen to him, but he was willing to do God's will. He understood why he had to die.

Mike Huckabee on Fox

Just in case you haven't been following the news, this is the story he is referring to in the video.

Pilot landed in Hudson to avoid 'catastrophic consequences'
Possible Bird Found in Engine of US Airways Jet

Watch the video of Mike Huckabees here

The best quote: He was reponding the question, "Why does God answer some prayers, but not others?"

"A finite mind can never fully comphrehend an infinite God and if God is so understandable that I can fully understand him, then He is not much of a God."
-Mike Huckabee

The above story could have turned out much different and much more tragic, but in the mist of an economic downturn and a preceived loss of hope, God decided to show His power.

Pre-Marital Sex Destroy Real Love Everytime

This story is heart-breaking to me. These girls have totally lost their innocence and not even their parents are standing up for them. It seems like parents have just given up. Parents today just assume their girls are going to be having sex, so instead of teaching their daughters to respect themselves and wait, they just stand back and watch. Then these parents always seem so surprised when their teenager tells them their pregnant or has an STD. Then the parents steps in and decides to be parent again. Where was that parent BEFORE she throw her life away?

I have been doing middle school ministry for almost a decade and I have seen girls give themselves away so many times. Girls, you are so worth the wait. Any guy that tells you different is not worth the ground he is standing on.

There is absolutely no love in pre-maritial sex, girls. Pre-maritial sex is all about lust and relationships based on lust never last. Really true love is based on so much more. Don't let yourself fall into the trap of believing that you have to have sex to be popular. It's just not true.

There are ways to protect yourself:
* Avoid tempting situations: Double date, don't go into your bedroom with a boy, always tell people where you are, etc

* Decide in advance: Choose your values in advance so when tempation comes you have them to fall back on

* Find an Accountabilty Partner: An accountability partner is someone who is going to watch out for you. An accountability partner is one of the most important things you can invest in. Find a friend or family member that you can trust. Pick a time and location to meet with them every week or more often if you want, and discuss what is going on in your life. What have your struggles been this week? What have your success been? Where have to you trimphed? Where have you failed? Honesty and trust are key because you can't be afraid to tell the whole truth to your accountability partner.

What Every Teenager Needs to Know:
They are not alone on this journey of life. Sometimes tough things happen but everything happens for a reason. I am convinced that the Middle School years are the toughest. In some situations they are expected to still act like children, because they are. But in other situation, people expect them to act like adults, so when they encounter a new situation they either act out or withdraw because they feel lost and confused. And to add on top of that they are experiencing hormones and feelings they don't understand and that can be painful. They search for whatever they can find to take the pain away and most of the time those solutions are only temporary, so they try the "drug" again. So the next thing you know, you have a middle school student addicted drugs, alcohol, sex, or whatever they chose for their "drug". As an Oasis leader, I try to give my girls a permanent solution to the pain and that is Jesus. Jesus's love is never temporary.

Parents WAKE UP!!! Sex is every where. Teenagers are being bombared with it from music, TV, and other media and seldom do they show the negative consequences. Girl are sexualized in music and treated like sex objects. What is that teaching our girls or our guys? When was the last time you saw someone on Gossip Girl get an STD or come home pregnant and heart-broken because now the guy wants nothing to do with her or her baby? Even in Juno the movie, the 16 year old gets pregnant and there was no negative consequence. She just moved on like it never happened. In Friends, Rachel gets pregnant and somehow is able to afford a baby and her huge New York city apartment with a job at small coffee shop job working part-time. You never see her struggling with money, trying to get food stamps or welfare, or trying to find a babysitter. Somehow everything just always seems so perfect. That is not reality and our girls are being handed a pack of lies. Our men are too. They being taught if they aren't having sex, they aren't cool. Guys need to hear this too. There is nothing "cool" about it. Just think, someday you might be a father. Would you want someone to be thinking about your daughter they way you are thinking about your girlfriend. I doubt it. She deserves respect and so do you.
The most important thing you can teach your daughter is self-respect and confidence. Fathers, I think, are the most important person in a daughters life. Daughters without fathers in their lives are far more likely to get into destrucive behavior. The girls are looking for love and they think love=sex, so the first guy that comes along and says sweet things to them...they are hooked. The first guy a daughter hears "I love you" from should be her father.

Christian Families Targeted

Voice of the Martyrs

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering around the world.

Romans 8:34-36
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 Thessalonians 3:6-8
But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

The Truth about Teen Girls

I borrowed this from my pal, DC.

It is an article from Time Magazine about the negative effects of media on our teen girls. Every parent and youth leader needs to read this article.

Here are some excerpts:

* "Unless you're an adolescent male, you have already asked yourself this question, perhaps in the past few days: Is there something wrong with teen girls? Specifically, are they getting too sexy? Barely a week passes without a flash bulletin blinding us with news of another prominent preadult who is in the family way or showing off her underthings. Miley Cyrus, 15, seminaked! Jamie Lynn Spears, 16, pregnant! A bunch of Massachusetts high schoolers all having babies together! It's an epidemic!"

* "Girlhood sexiness seems to be everywhere: on TV shows and in movies, in advertising, in teen magazines and all over the Internet. Most disturbingly, it seems to be coming from the girls themselves: the way they dress, the way they text, the way they present themselves on Facebook and, oh, mercy, what they get up to at parties."

* "In one generation, girls seem to have moved from Easy-Bake to easy virtue."

* "In the past four months, there have been four weighty books published on the subject, with titles like Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex Is Affecting Our Children and So Sexy So Soon. Most of these treatises have a similar thesis: young girls are sexually loose because they're aping behavior they see on TV or read about in magazines. And as if on cue, the media deliver a new 90210 with an oral-sex scene in the first episode; Gossip Girl comes back with billboards promoting it as MIND-BLOWINGLY INAPPROPRIATE ... and your daughter starts singing that alarmingly suggestive song about licking a lollipop."

* "Middle school counselor Julia Taylor of North Carolina had a conversation with her sixth-graders last year that worried her. "A lot of them were watching The O.C.," she says. "I just remember the show's multiple sexual partners, the cocaine use, and then at the end, they drink, they drive, they set fires, but all is well! There are never any consequences."

* "What has complicated things recently is that girls are literally getting older younger. Their bodies are hitting physical maturity sooner, often before they are ready to deal with the issues of sexuality that go along with it. According to Jane Brown, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Twelve-to-14-year-old girls who start puberty earlier are more interested in sexual content in the media." Brown's studies found that adolescents whose media diet was rich in sexual content were more than twice as likely as others to have had sex by the time they were 16."

* "Should girls fear that they don't have the requisite hotness, there's a surefire way to overcome that: find a boy to sleep with. "They're subconsciously looking for love," says Amanda Ireland, another Gloucester teen. "They think, If I have a baby, I'll be someone. It gives them an identity." How can Ireland be so sure? She gave birth to daughter Haley, now 3, when she was 15."

Read More Here

What do you think we can do to stop this epidemic of teen girls giving themselves away. They are looking for love in all the wrong places. They want so bad just to hear someone say, "I love you," and the guys have figured this out.