What Happens In Your Story?

Have you ever written a story and the ending was very different from what you thought it would be? It's different than writing a blog post that is usually short and has a specific point.  A story is another beast entirely.  You may start to write and as you ask questions of the characters, different events happen than what you originally planned.

I have this story idea in my head.  It's actually been floating around for a couple years.  I started actually writing down earlier this year, but I haven't finished it yet.  It's been pushed to the back burner a little bit as I work on some other hustles, but I still feel that it's an important story to write. Now it's NaNoWriMo, so I squeeze in some more writing time.  (NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month for those of you that are not familiar.) As I think about these characters and what they will go through, there are little tweaks here and there.  It's not clean cut.  Everything doesn't work out perfectly.  That's rarely how life happens.  We do struggle.  We do get lost sometimes.

I think that's what happened to the teenagers at Canon City High School this week.  Perhaps they thought, "It's just a little picture.  What harm can it do?" They are smart--and hormonal, and not as grown as they think they are.  Most of the parents I know are taking the opportunity to talk with their kids (hopefully they've already been talking about it).  There are so many directions that conversation can go.  For example, this isn't a one time deal--the internet is forever.  If you wouldn't want your mom, sister, aunt, etc. to be portrayed this way, then why would you portray yourself this way? The list goes on.  The problem is that it isn't just a teenager problem.  We are all susceptible to porn.  It's an addiction.

To borrow from Casting Crowns' song, Slow Fade: 

Be careful little eyes what you see.  It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings...

I'm not here to judge.  I am a sinner every bit as much as the next guy.  I'm here to offer that we need to be praying for our kids.  We need to be involved with our kids.  We need to teach them that temptation is real and it's out there.  Talk with them before these things happen about how to respond when it does happen.  Decide before. It's okay to be sad for the innocence lost. It can never be completely erased, but now begins the time to heal.

#IamCCHS #JensWallsTalk

What are your thoughts about all this?  I'd love to hear about it below.

If you've enjoyed what you read today, you can have my new blog posts delivered to your inbox by simply entering it in the box to the right.  See you soon!