The Power of Influence

So, my Facebook has been buzzing about the VMA performances last week, specifically about one performer, Miley Cyrus. Now, I never actually saw a recording of that awful event (not do I want to), but I've read enough about it in the World Wide Web to realize that Miley's innocent days of Hannah Montana have been violently pulverized into non-existence. People seriously haven't stopped talking about her raunchy performance, so I began to think about it a little bit too.

I came to realize something very important that we can learn from Miley: the power of influence. Even though none of us may realize it, we have huge influence. Even though we don't sell hits on iTunes or appear on national television, we have direct influence on the people all around us. 

I actually learned this fact last year. While I was at school one day, I saw one of the new 7th graders sitting by herself in study hall. Now, before I continue, you have to understand the layout of my school. It is set up with 7th grade being the beginning of middle school. When you move from 6th grade to 7th grade at my school, you go to a completely different floor in the building where you are grouped with everyone from 7th grade to 12th grade. So essentially, the leap into middle school makes you feel like a tiny minnow in a sea of whales (my random analogy). I remembered experiencing this drastic leap, so when I saw this 7th grader, I decided to go and talk to her for a while. She was a nice kid, and we talked for about fifteen minutes until I had to leave. I didn't think anything of this conversation until about a day later when my mom told me that this 7th grader's mom had talked to her. The 7th grader's mom said that her daughter was SO excited that I had come to talk to her. She even came home that day using my full name and saying, "she actually talked to me!" 

I was so shocked. Just the fact that me, a normal junior in high school, had stopped to talk to the 7th grader made a huge difference to her. It made me realize that every little thing I do and every choice I make is being watched by someone and could even be mimicked by someone who looks up to me. Pretty scary, isn't it? 

The Bible backs up this point very clearly too. I'm sure you know this verse very well, but read it again anyway, thinking about it in the context I just discussed:

"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity."

1Timothy 4:12

It's all about influence. 

And if you want to see the example of a bad influence, you can always look back to our friend Miley. In the end, the key to having a good influence is to have a good reputation. See, I realized something. Despite all of the good values and concepts Miley communicated through her Hannah Montana days, I'll bet that in years to come, the only thing people will remember about her is the negative: this MTV performance and the awful things to follow.

It reminds me of a saying that a fabulous teacher and role model of mine said once,

"It takes years to build a good reputation. It only takes a moment to make a bad one."

Think about that for a second. Your influence and reputation can be changed that quickly. In just a moment- the snap of a camera, a step outside your room after choosing what to wear, the click of a button on the Internet, a single word out of your mouth, and your entire reputation can be ruined and your influence changed from good to bad.

What will you do with your power of influence: use it for good or for bad? 

Snacks and Spiritual Leaders

Walk through the grocery store on any given day and you're bound to see all sorts of grandiose claims.

"No Trans Fat"

"All-Natural Ingredients"

"Low Fat"

"Gluten-Free"

"No High Fructose Corn Syrup"

etc. etc. etc.

However, many hidden secrets can be found if you flip over that box and begin to wade through the lengthy list of ingredients. For example, several years ago, my mom discovered the folly of eating trans fats and she immediately trained my brother and I to be on the lookout for the dreaded fat whenever we walked into the supermarket. Trans fat was sneaky when it was put on the back of boxes; it had a secret identity to hide its true intent to DESTROY THE HUMAN RACE (insert dramatic music here). Its real name... partially hydrogenated oil. 

 So as a little 9-year old homeschooler, I became a pro at zooming through the lists of unpronounceable ingredients listed on the back of cracker boxes and cake mixes to find the villain of all oils. As I became a detective for finding partially hydrogenated oils, I realized something very shocking indeed; some of the boxes would claim to have "zero grams of trans fat" on the front of the box but have trans fats in the ingredients on the back! Then, I would figure out that this was simply because there wasn't enough partially hydrogenated oil in a serving to add up to a gram- a pretty cheap way to cheat people.  

As I've gotten older and continued to shop, I have realized that this paradox can be found in many other forms, such as the claim that Lucky Charms cereal helps kids grow stronger because it has "whole grains" in it. Basically, they're trying to say that their cereal is healthy simply because they add those little cat food-looking things amongst the rainbow marshmallows (and most kids don't eat the kitty kibble anyway...). Even the healthiest-looking snack that you can find at Whole Foods is bound to have something that can't be very good for you. Even an all-natural snack that contains "cane sugar" is still not the best for you to eat (even though it may be better than eating a bunch of artificial nonsense). Ultimately, the only food that is really trustworthy to be the healthiest of them all is... *drumroll*... FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

That's right. Go ahead and think through all of the other foods that you could be eating and see if you can find another food that is guaranteed to be 100% good for your health. It's hard to think of anything.

So, now I'm going to tell you why I just spent several paragraphs discussing Lucky Charms and partially hydrogenated oils. It all stemmed from an article I discovered on Facebook several weeks ago. This particular article was actually written to discredit the teachings of one of my favorite speakers, Joyce Meyer. It basically went through many things that she has said and discussed why they are against the Bible. While this article was rather shocking for me, it also opened my eyes to something that we Christians need to be aware of. We need to practice discernment when deciding what to believe. 

1 John 4:1 talks about this concept. It says,

"Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world."

When I bring up this verse, I'm not saying that Joyce Meyer, or anyone else for that matter, is necessarily a "false prophet". I just bring it up because it makes me think a lot and ask myself this important question: Am I actually testing everything I hear from my pastors and spiritual leaders, or am I just blindly absorbing everything they say?

Back to the unhealthy food examples, I like to think of secondary sources such as pastors and teachers as those snacks put into boxes; although they have lots of good things to say that stem from their faiths, there are also bound to be those things in them that are not good. The truth is, everyone here on earth is a sinner. All spiritual leaders are sinners too, so if we are blindly consuming every single thing they say without thoroughly scanning the "ingredient list" of their doctrine, we could be making a big mistake by believing the wrong concepts. Even blindly absorbing this blog is a bad idea. I'm a sinner too, you know. But, how do you test what these leaders are saying? 

Isaiah 8:20a tells us,

"Look to God's instructions and teachings!" 

That's it. You take everything your pastor or teacher says and weigh it to "God's instructions and teachings", also known as the Bible. I love it when a speaker backs up his or her points with LOTS AND LOTS of scripture, because that's a telltale sign that the ideas he or she is discussing really did stem from the Bible. Back to the food example again, if secondary sources such as pastors and teachers are like those snacks in the boxes, the Bible, the primary source, is like fruits and vegetables. It is the only way to find absolute truth. So, in order to have a healthy "diet" of teachings, we need to get daily dosage of the purest, healthiest food out there. Ultimately, by studying the Bible, we will be able to build an understanding of God's character and how he feels about us. With this basis of understanding, we will be able to move forward and test every spiritual leader that we hear. Then, we will truly receive impact from these spiritual leaders by picking out what we know is true and applying it to our lives. Plus, if you are thoroughly analyzing everything your pastor says in comparison to the concepts from God's word, I'll bet you won't be tempted to fall asleep in church anymore...