As a teen I didn’t like my mom’s friends mentioning to her who they saw me with. However, the knowledge of that kept me on a fairly straight and narrow path. Now I hope people would tell me if they saw my teens in questionable company!
I don’t know many people here, but people know who we are! We are the weird, big homeschooling family who bought “that house” (a major fixer upper). As a kid I was so concerned about what people thought-needed approval in my small town. Somewhere along the line I found the courage to fear God and not man. Even in a small town where everyone knows your business!
I can understand teenagers not wanting their actions seem at times. But all that means is there not doing the right thing! Same with some adults.
I’m still amazed how many times God comes up in conversations with people around here. I think that makes it so much easier to have my actions be God-oriented, or at least be seen in the light of not being judged by the world standards. We have few liberals here so I don’t need to worry about that so much.
The only thing I really worry about here is coming across as too materialistic. People here, at least out in the country where I am, are definitely not that way! I’m pretty amazed with the lack of upgrades people live with. We remodeled our entire house, but have tried to downplay it to the neighbors. But I really can’t stand all the dark paneling and tiny windows, especially with my bad vision . So that was my excuse! and the floor was quite wobbly, so it needed reinforcing. So of course we had to replace the flooring on top of it! Only thing I didn’t have an excuse for was replacing the 70s kitchen completely. Boxes of cereal must’ve been no taller than 9 inches back then! Every cabinet was short. And the oven was tiny. But I did love the dishwasher! It was built before the environmental Nazis were in charge apparently . It actually dried the dishes, and had a heating element! Happy times ;)
I don’t think people here saw our house is a fixer-upper, although we certainly did! Every room is being redone, we are now on the second and third bedroom and almost finished. Other than painting the paneling in the basement white. What are you doing to your house?