Unpolluted, 2017 (8th grade version)

Last week in my classes, we memorized James 1:27, one of my favorite verses. It says:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
We do a pretty decent job on the orphans and widows part but the polluted part, well, that's the kicker. Each student was assigned to write a paragraph about the dilemma. These responses tonight are from eighth graders. All are used by permission. Boys are in blue, girls in pink.

I think being unpolluted by the world means to always be happy and to be Christlike in everything you do. I think Ms. Moody is an unpolluted teacher. She always has a smile on her face, even when she is not feeling well. She always finds a way to cheer everyone up. You never know when she is having a bad day because she always shares happiness and is always joyful!
     Vanessa

Being polluted by the world means letting the evil ways of man become your ways. You become polluted by the world when you allow yourself to compromise with man's wickedness. I say this because compromise weakens the resolve. Things that pollute you can be as simple as cursing one time, and it might be accidental, but that one little sin just polluted you. Ways we can avoid being polluted are not listening to bad music and not hanging around the wrong crowd.
     Heaven

To keep yourself from being polluted by the world is to not let others get in your way and not letting others influence you to do something that's bad. You can do this by being yourself, no matter what people say. You can also stay positive, not letting others bring you down. Being yourself and not being around poor examples is what you have to do to keep from being polluted.
     Jaylin

What I think it means to be unpolluted by the world is to know what you should and shouldn't do and to try to do what you should. If you hear a bad word in a song or see someone do something they should not do, that doesn't mean you have to repeat what they did.
     Alexandria

If I ever have kids, I would try to keep them from being polluted by the world by waiting until they are mature enough to use electronics. I would check their history and make it to where everyone could see their screen. But no matter how hard I tried to keep them unpolluted, I would fail because they would be around polluted people every day- I can't keep that from happening without making them introverts or basically holding them captive. I would set rules and punish them when they do bad things so they'd know not to do them again.
     Haley

I think not being polluted means always having a good attitude, no matter the situation. We should always be respectful to people, always polite. Then, they can respect you and do things to help other people. They will follow you and you can be an example!
     Aaron

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

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E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com