Why We Didn’t Do The Ice Bucket Challenge

Yes, my husband and I were nominated and decided not to participate {at least not in the typical way}.  Let me explain why a little more in depth…

Is it because we’re Debbie Downers, haters, rude, complainers or scrooges?  Nope.  Is it because we felt we had a point to prove?  You betcha!

We have two littles at home, are leaders in our youth group at church and my husband is in charge of little league cheerleading.  The point is we have lots of little eyes on us y’all.  Little eyes that face “peer pressure” every single day!  Oh, how hard peer pressure is to deal with.  For us older generation {cannot even believe I just admitted that} we can’t even imagine the challenges these kids face today.  And honestly, whether it’s in the name of charity or not, are we really going to pretend being tagged or “nominated” in a challenge (basically a dare) isn’t peer pressure?  So you were nominated, now what?  If you don’t do it, everyone is going to think you’re either a chicken or a Debbie Downer.  We just felt someone needed to say “Hey, it’s OKAY to not go with the crowd!  It’s OKAY to not do something just because you were challenged or dared to do it”.  We felt we needed to practice what we preach and model it.  And if that makes us wrong, haters, complainers and scrooges…it’s OKAY!

I am not going to debate for one second that ALS isn’t a horrible disease.  It is…it’s horrible and scary.  And of course money needs donated to research.  Goodness people.  That wasn’t the point of our video.  Our point was this…while ALS is horrible so is abortion, breast cancer and MS.  Isn’t every disease a horrible disease?  Isn’t every life taken through abortion sad?  YES, the answer is yes!  So as long as we are donating to some worthy charity, one that we have passion in our hearts for, isn’t that really what this is about?  Doesn’t it truly just boil down to giving?  And should we really have to be prompted through a dare to give to charity?

I want every single parent out there to know that this was NOT directed to you at all.  Seriously y’all, if you and your children participated that is awesome!  Aren’t all of our parenting styles different anyways?  And don’t we all agree diversity is a great thing?  Again, you betcha!  This is just what we felt in our hearts we were to do and nothing more than that.

Now as for why I mentioned Romans 12:2…Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world,” or as another translation puts it, “don’t let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age.” It is easy to let the world and the culture draw us in, seduce us, if you will, squeeze us into its mold, tell us how we should think and even what we should think, and instruct us how we can and can’t act and which challenge we should do. God says it’s OKAY to not give in guys!

Do we feel those that participated in the challenge sinned?  Not at all.  So why quote this verse?  So those that didn’t want to participate had something to cling to!

I’m sorry if us not participating in the typical way upsets you, I truly am.  Why am I sorry?  Because the point of our video wasn’t to upset people.  Not at all.  It was actually meant to do the opposite, encourage people.  More specifically, encourage littles.  Again, it’s all good y’all.  We knew that by taking this stand we would ruffle some feathers and we were prepared for that.  But if we gave just one little enough courage to stand up to peer pressure, then it was worth it to us.