Saturday, October 01, 2005

Flirt? Who? Me?

In The Perfect Girl, Jenna Rose meets Jamie Valentin, the school star jock, and just the ticket she needs to find her way into the popular crowd. Even though she doesn’t find Jamie particularly cute or interesting, she decides to get his attention. Her seemingly innocent flirting leads to potentially disastrous consequences.
So, how do you feel about flirting? Is it all harmless fun? And as a Christian, are you held to a higher standard of conduct when it comes to the opposite sex? Take this quiz and see where it leads you.

Part one: Do all his moves mean "I like you"?

You’re partnered with this guy in your lab class, and he asks you to meet him at the library after school to cram for your presentation next week.
*Yes
*No

He’s at your last two volleyball games, cheering the loudest when you score.
*Yes
*No

He said hi to you as you walked past him in the hall.
*Yes
*No

Your older brother’s best friend talked to you on the phone about a hot new CD that you have going in the background for ten minutes before he even asked to talk to your brother.
*Yes
*No

When the school photographer asked a group of your friends to pose for a yearbook picture, he stood behind you, wrapped his arms around your neck, and hugged you tightly, grinning over your shoulder.
*Yes
*No

Part Two: Do all your moves mean "I like you"?

You’re partnered with this guy in your lab class. You know he has a good grasp on his periodical table, and you’re just lost every time you look at it. You ask him to meet you at the library after school to cram for your presentation next week.
*Yes
*No

Everyone has school spirit at the basketball and football games, but for some reason the school loses their spirit come spring and baseball season. You happen to love baseball and get to every game you can. The centerfielder, while not pro material, has really shown heart and a lot of improvement since the beginning of the season. As a baseball fan, you appreciate his hard work and cheer as loud as you can for him every chance you get.
*Yes
*No

This guy who was your best friend through elementary school just looks like he is having a bad day as he slams his locker shut. You don’t really have any classes together anymore, and you’ve really lost touch. But you decide to say "hi" anyways hoping it will make him feel better.
*Yes
*No

Your older brother’s best friend calls, and you can hear the new Afters CD you’ve been wanting to get your hands on playing in the background. Before handing the phone over to your bro, you have to get the scoop on if its worth the cash or not.
*Yes
*No

When the school photographer asks your group of buds to pose for a picture, you wrap your arms around your friend sitting in the chair in front of you and give him a big hug. Everyone knows he’s been your best friends since kindergarten, and besides, this way, the ketchup you dribbled down the front of your shirt won’t be immortalized in the yearbook for eternity.
*Yes
*No

Wrap Up

When it comes to flirting, everyone has his/her own opinion. Innocent fun. Reckless behavior. Shallowness. The only way to find out if a guy likes you. The best way to get to know someone.
Those were some of the opinions I got the last time I talked with a group of teens about flirting.
Someone else said that it would be a lot easier if flirting was just listed as one of those Thou Shalt Not’s in the Bible. There’s a lot of things young people are going to face in life that aren’t spelled out in God’s Word. True, no where in the Bible does it say "Thou shalt not flirt," but there is plenty of tales of flirting gone bad (think of Joseph and the Pharoah’s wife in Genesis—right smack in the beginning of the Book.) In The Perfect Girl Jenna Rose thinks of flirting as a tool to get her what she wants, and as a result, she puts herself in danger.
There’s a belief in the world today that a girl should be able to take flirting as far as she wants, and then, when no means no, no means no. In a perfect world, all guys would respect women the way God intended them to, and that would be well and good. Too bad we don’t live there. In Psalm 51:10, the psalmist asks God to "create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me." If Jenna Rose had prayed like that, asking for a steadfast spirit and a pure heart, she would have found herself in a lot less trouble in her new school.

So, how’d you score? There’s no right or wrong answers here—just food for thought. Quizzes are a blast, I know. There’s nothing like hanging with your girls, a good cut on the radio, and the latest teen mag quiz in hand. They dare you to dream, look at things differently, and see things in a new perspective.
Or do they? In this quiz, did you look at part one differently after reading the questions in part two? Maybe even go back and change an answer or two? What’s your dating I.Q.? What kind of flirt are you? When you see these kind of titles, you have a preconceived notion of what your quiz results are going to be. Don’t get me wrong—I love quizzes. I still get a bit giddy when I get my mail and one of my mags has a quiz listed on the cover. (Of course, for me and the kind of magazines I get on a regular basis now, those quizzes have titles like Are you getting enough vitamins in your diet? And Do you get enough time away from the kids?) It’s fun to see if you can learn something new about yourself. But don’t let a quiz make such an impact on you that it changes you from the person that God wants you to be.

In His Service,
~B.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This quiz really made me think...I have a guy friend that wasn't sending messages I was recieving, and perhaps was missing messages I was sending. Thanks!
Nina

Anonymous said...

stumbled on this website, having a lot of troubles with the whole temptations side of being a teenager. why cant i just be good. i feel like ive let God down, so many times. i cant stop, i want to. help.