How trite and true – curiosity killed the cat. However, to be curious is not bad. Curiosity is often the catalyst for change. It brings about new inventions, medical cures, natural science discoveries, and on and on.
Yet curiosity can easily turn sour when it harbors no boundaries. Eve and the apple for instance. 😉
I bring this up because I dealt with something in our family this week that truly had me in a panic. I’ve dealt with the matter with a great amount of prayer, tears and love. To be honest I was not going to share this with my readers because of the shame that is attached. In prayer today God reminded me that part of my gift is to share so that others can learn too.
In an effort to keep certain things private, I’ll be vague but to the point and I pray whomever God is asking me to share this – gets it. 🙂
It deals with EVERY electronic device (nothing is exempt…not even Iphones, ipods or touches, wii’s etc). My youngest son (10 yrs old) was playing around (he wasn’t even on the computer!!!) and searched a cute actress’s name along with a normal descriptive word he’d heard on TV, (normal cable TV – kid show TV) and up came graphic images ( I don’t want to even type the word lest my blog come up if someone googles the word!!!). 🙁
They were video ads, weren’t long but showed more than what ANY aged person should view. He had no idea what he was really seeing and being that we are curious people he looked. We found out about it. He was filled with shame. Cried many tears. Wants nothing to do with anything that has the internet at this point.
I thought I had taken all precautions before allowing him to use any device that had internet type access. He knew he shouldn’t have been looking up girls but he doesn’t even know what sex is let alone graphic pictures or videos!!
What hurt the most was I could see this caused a great amount of shame in him which prevented him from telling me (or my husband) at first…when I asked why he didn’t tell me what had happened he said, “I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I never wanted to see it again.” I explained to him what scared me the most about this reaction is that at any time if something or someone were to make him feel the way he felt at the time (shameful) that he needs to come to me right away so I can help him work through that feeling. I’ve told him for years if anyone did anything harmful to him to come to me and this incident showed me how powerful shame can be. It shuts you up.
We didn’t want to make a bigger deal about what he actually saw because he had yet to be told what ‘sex’ is…and we don’t want him to associate those images with the beauty that God created it to be. But we did confront the issue of him keeping things from us and doing something he knew that he probably shouldn’t be doing even if it brought up more than what he intended.
I’ve consulted many of my priest friends from all over the US and in different orders (I wanted every perspective!!) and thankfully I think we have it all under control (is ANYTHING every really ‘under control’??) at least for today. 😉
The reason why I share this incident with you is this – in that split second my innocent 10yr old son lost that innocense because of the way the enemy sneaks in and perverted two decent good gifts – love and curiosity. None of us are immune to his sneak attacks. If you have any type of devices in your house that have access to internet (even an IPHONE) and the ability to do ‘searches’ do your RESEARCH and RESTRICT.
I’m not saying throw out your computers! Live in a box! Let’s do away with electricity! I’m just saying be vigilent. Ultimately it will come down to how I have raised my kids. They will come to a point where they will CHOOSE to say ‘no I won’t let curiosity get me and look’ or they will. And if they do then hopefully I have offered enough prayer up for them that guides them to recognize the enemy and walk away.
Blessings
Shannon