The Trap of The World Wide Web
I am sure that we will all agree that a lot of good comes from the World Wide Web. Friendships are formed between people who are miles and miles away. The internet is able to connect us to people in places of the country that we’d otherwise never be able to visit, yet now we are able to communicate with these wonderful people any time of the day or night. They are right there within our reach every time we turn on our computer, smartphones, or tablets. I have met so many wonderful people online, and we have remained friends for going on 20 years now. Seriously! I have friends in Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, and Australia just to name a few places a little further on the map than I. These friendships have brought me so much joy and happiness through the years, and I treasure and cherish each person that has taken the time to get to know me and my family.
The internet has a wealth of information available as well. If you have a research paper due or need to know this or that, the internet brings all of the information to you with just a few clicks.
There is even counseling available online. If you’d rather not speak to someone in person or feel you need assistance right away, someone is there waiting to respond once you reach out. While I haven’t personally explored this avenue, with my time at (in)courage, I have been made aware of services offered through E-counseling.
When used the right way, the internet is a wonderful tool to bring delightful messages right to your inbox every single day. What an amazing feeling it is to open your email in the morning to find messages awaiting. Do you smile as wide as I do when you hear from your family and friends? I actually get disappointed if there isn’t a personal email waiting for me. I enjoy forwarded jokes, cartoons, and inspirational messages, but nothing beats a personal email packed full of details of the other person’s life! Just knowing that they took the time to share all of this with me … it just warms my heart and brings a smile to my face. I love when people share with me, and it makes me feel so much closer to them!
Unfortunately, there are bad things that come from the internet as well. With a few clicks of the mouse, even the youngest child can stumble upon pornographic material. It doesn’t even have to be by visiting an x-rated website either. They can just innocently enter in a word in the search engine and have a bunch of garbage come up. This material is lurking in corners of the internet that we would never even dream about (I was just told that it’s on YouTube as well – oh my gosh!), and it’s so readily available (I still haven’t recovered from the shock yet!). This type of thing has wreaked havoc in people’s lives. There are people that search for this type of material for their viewing pleasure. They become addicted and obsessed with it, and it ruins marriages! The habit is hidden from their spouses, but once they stumble upon it in the history or various other ways that the secretive online activity is discovered, hurt and betrayal is sure to be felt by the wounded spouse as more lies and deceit are uncovered.
The internet is a valuable tool, and a lot of good things can come from the internet or the world wide web. However, be careful little eyes what you see. Evil lurks in corners of the internet as well. Don’t fall for the trap of the world wide web! Once it lures you in, it’s hard to get untangled from the sticky little web of lies, deceit, and betrayal!
Another of the bad things lurking on the internet are people who are not what they claim to be or who misrepresent themselves. There are sick people on the internet that prey on young people. I have had to speak to my oldest daughter in previous years about this very thing. She was so young and innocent that she just could not grasp the dangers of the internet. She wants to see the good in people at all times and can’t imagine any one ever doing anything bad. She has a heart of pure gold, and she cares for people. I have been so afraid of her “meeting” people that would draw her in and then later she’d learn that they weren’t who they said they were after all. I can’t caution her enough on this even still at her age now.
There are other dangers such as getting close to emotional vampires who you honestly try to save with all of your might only to find that you did not possess that kind of power. Sure, this type of thing often happens in real life with people face-to-face, but it can and does happen via the internet as people reach out to talk to others that they don’t have to see every single day of their lives. They feel a special connection and special bond so much that they pour their hearts and souls out over emails and chats. Beautiful friendships have been formed through things such as this, but really bad situations have resulted as well. Take a suicidal person that is clinging to you with all of their might, yet you’re not trained in this area to help them. They won’t talk to anyone else, and you are their life line at that moment in time. You do everything you can, and yet you aren’t sure if they are safe or if they will try to harm themselves when you are forced to turn off the computer after spending hours trying to reason with them. Or, what about the cutter that is not really trying to kill themselves, but they just hurt so badly that they harm themselves in this way to release some of the emotional pain they are feeling? How do you know the difference? You worry, fret, pray, and cry over all of this, and then eventually even the most positive and upbeat person can end up being grabbed a hold of and pulled down with them much like the drowning person that you’re trying so desperately to save. You swim with all of your might holding on to them as tightly as you can, yet with them in a panic with their arms around your neck, they push you further down until both of you end up hitting bottom.
Affairs get started online. The emotional connection I spoke of earlier, well, that can be a great thing … or it can be a curse. If you start thinking the grass is greener on the other side with a person that you are so connected with, someone who you may feel more connected to even more so than your spouse … you’re in trouble!
There are dating sites which are supposed to be used for singles to find someone to go out with. However, how many married men and women lurk on those sites looking for an extra marital affair? The same can be said for Facebook and other social media sites, though, if you are using them in the wrong way. I’ve heard of people getting on there and reconnecting with their past loves from their high school or college days.
How about the bullying that goes on from people hiding behind the computer screen? They feel braver typing words on a screen, and they blast people left and right. However, cyber bullying is very real and very much punishable! Use Facebook and other social media channels responsibly!
The point in this post is to enjoy the internet but please be so very careful with your usage so as to avoid the trap of the world wide web! If you’re using it for good things such as connecting with like minded women with sites such as (in)courage, Good Morning Girls, Women Living Well, or Time Warped Wife, that is wonderful! If you’re using it to visit blogs such as this which offer inspiration and encouragement, that is incredible, and we hope you’ll visit often! If you’re looking up bible verses and all things good and honorable, more power to you! Just be careful not to fall into the trap of the world wide web in viewing pornographic material, engaging in cyber sex, entertaining affairs of any kind, bullying others or any other negative and damaging thing that could come from the internet. Use it for GOOD, as it was intended.
You may think that no one will ever know what you look up when you’re wasting time online. Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. Someone does know other than you … and that person is GOD! He sees all, and He knows your every thought … even the not so pretty ones that you’d love to hide from Him. It’s just not possible, for He knows every little thing, your sins that you think are hidden, your lustful thoughts, the things you think you’re doing in private where no one will know … He’s there … He’s a witness to all of your activities – good or bad – honorable or sinful – respectful or lacking in morals and values.
Just as you’ve heard people say to find the good in each day, find the good on the internet! Focus on all of the good things that you can find online, and stay away from the bad! Don’t get caught in the trap of the world wide web!
Have you ever thought of yourself as being special?
We can be our own worst enemies at times. We criticize ourselves for doing this or that. We beat ourselves up over things that are truly not that important. I know this as I do this to myself all the time.
What we don’t think about is that God gave each of us certain special talents. You may be saying right now, well I don’t have any special talents. But I bet you do.
I have spent part of my life as a teacher. My college degree is in history and education. I have not taught what I truly love which is history, but I have still gotten to teach for many years. I love teaching. It is one of my special talents. I just seem to have a knack for it. As such, I have been an adjunct professor at our local community college for the past fifteen years teaching web design and development. Never in a million years would I have guessed I would be teaching this subject, but God made all the pieces fall together so that I could still engage in one of the things I love; teaching.
As a teacher, I see so many different sides to the students I meet each semester. I look at each of them differently and try to find the best method for them to learn the material. I know that each of my students have special talents all their own. As a teacher, I believe it is my job to help foster those talents to help make them into a better person.
I would like you to think about what makes you special. For me, I know my limitations and I know what I am good at. I am a good teacher. I can cook very well. I am a fairly accomplished musician. Though I am a very quiet person in a small group setting, I have no problem getting up and speaking in front of large groups. These are some of the special talents God has given me. Sit down and think about the things you love to do and what you do very well. Those are your talents
When you see that someone you know has a certain ability encourage them. So many times I see and hear people get put down for doing something they are good at. I have a friend who had experienced that in their lives. It has gotten to a point where they don’t have confidence in themselves in those special things God gave them. This person has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. They are also a very gifted writer. I try to encourage them in those and other aspects of their life because I see what an amazing gift God has given them.
If you haven’t already, sit and think about what gifts God has given you. It can be something very simple as a knack for doing something; but that is still a gift. Encourage yourself and others to engage in those talents that make each of us special.
~The Quiet Computer Guy
A question of …faith
Faith
What is it?
Some folks would say “Faith is the belief in a higher power” Well I’m not so sure. Faith to me is the belief in the human spirit the human soul so to speak, I was raised a Roman Catholic and as a kid growing up. I attended church every Sunday, even was an alter boy. Events of my adult life brought me not only to question my faith but the church as well. Being raised by a Roman Catholic father and a Native American mother. I had the benefits of both worlds and both cultures. I saw the hypocrisy of the catholic churches. Where people strived to advance themselves through the hierarchy of the church administration. I saw the love of family and community of my Native family. The phrase “its not what you have but what you have to give” was a oft used phrase in my childhood home. Losing my mother at the age of 12 left my native teaching undone and had to rely on “extended family” to fill in the pieces of the puzzle of that part of my heritage. Losing my father at 20, a man that was more then just a father to me but also my best friend. That lose started my journey of education. I’ve spent many hours sitting in classroom learning philosophy and theology and many other “ologies” What i took out of all that learning was that the human spirit the belief in the love of another. The faith you place in the hands of another. Is where the strength of mankind lies. You can call “it: what you will God, Jehovah, Buddha, Allah. The theme is all the same.
To whom do we turn to when life throws a curve ball at us, knocks us down. Do we turn to God in our times of need. Is it then when we are at our weakest that we turn our faces and voices to the heavens? In some of my darkest hours of life. Times that I had deep feelings that I was not going to see my next birthday. It was the power of love from those that cared for me that fed me strength. That gave me the jolt of energy to fight back. In my work as a Respiratory Therapist and Nurse Practitioner over the years, i have seen things that many people would never wish to see. I favorite saying of mine is “there are things you can not unsee” I have sat at the bedside of very young children and seen the wonderment in there eyes even as they face an illness of injury that they may not survive. Through that I have watched parents, brothers, sisters even hospital staff showing the love and strength that (to me) was a catalyst in the recovery.
Faith, Faith in the love of another. I believe you can not have love without faith. You can however have faith without love. Many people will hide behind faith and use that as a way to attempt to absolve themselves of wrong doing by going to church. The faith, the absolution is not in a building. It’s within the hearts of those we love and that love us. It’s their “faith” in us that will carry us through. God, Allah or Jehovah resides within each of us. Lakotah people call him “Wakan Tanka” which means “Great Spirit”. Those teachings were passed on for generations of “community first”, family above all. Never betraying that faith put in by another. The feeling of a loved one gazing at you, the feeling of the hand of a child in yours. Their “faith” in you that you will protect and guide them. As I continue forward in life. Feeling indebted to those in my life that gave my strength to over come. Knowing I am expected to so the same for them in their times of need. If I don’t then I betray the faith they have in me. I don’t turn to the heavens to ask for strength. I turn inward. I turn the the spirit that dwells within me. Asking for strength, wisdom and guidance. Faith…faith in the love that is a gift. Faith in those that love you. They will hold you when you are weakest. They will fight the battle you may be too weak to fight. As I was told many years ago by my own spirit guide (yes I do have one) “Believe in me, for I believe in you” Faith is not in a book, a building or on a Internet web page. It resides deep with each of us. Feel it, touch it listen to it. It speaks to all of us. “Believe in me, for I believe in you”
