Garbage In Garbage Out

It never ceases to amaze me when I stop and think just how much our daily lives have changed in the high school setting over the past 30 years. Students used to have to get all of their information and knowledge either from books, TV, or the adults in their lives. This is not the […]

It never ceases to amaze me when I stop and think just how much our daily lives have changed in the high school setting over the past 30 years. Students used to have to get all of their information and knowledge either from books, TV, or the adults in their lives. This is not the case anymore. All knowledge is obtainable from the smartphone in their hand. The parent or the adult at the front of the room is no longer the gate keeper of knowledge that they used to be. Now it is whatever or whomever the search engine pushes to the top of the list. The only Gate Keeper is the student themselves.
We discussed this with the youth group this past Wednesday. We talked about a laptop as a metaphor for our mind. Everything we see, hear, and do are stored, just like you input data into a laptop. Only what you input into the computer can come out. Our minds work the same way. Garbage in, Garbage Out (GIGO) is the concept we talked about the most – not only the Garbage of sex, TV, bad movies, etc. but also the Garbage of self-doubt, discouragement, and rude thoughts of others. Satan loves it when we give up, when we hear that voice inside ourselves that says “I can’t do it,” or “I can’t live that good right now. I’ll try when I get older.” Avoid the Garbage from the outside world and from within. In short, Romans 12:2 tells us to not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. If our mind is like a laptop that only puts out what is stored in it, then we must be careful what we allow to be stored in our mind. Keep the Garbage out!
In class we separated into smaller groups and discussed the old story of the two wolves fighting. The wolves are fighting for control of our minds; one is an evil wolf, the other is the good wolf. The stronger of the two wolves will win the fight. So how do you get one wolf stronger than the other? You feed it. Good feeds the Good Wolf and evil feeds the Evil Wolf. Which wolf are you feeding this week? Don’t feed the Evil Wolf, the Garbage of this world. Guard what you allow in and allow the Good Wolf to win the battle.

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