{"id":9938,"date":"2024-03-03T08:50:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T08:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=9938"},"modified":"2024-03-03T08:50:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T08:50:48","slug":"mean-girls-have-been-around-for-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=9938","title":{"rendered":"Mean Girls Have Been Around for a Long Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I saw the trailer for Mean Girls<\/em> being promoted. Twenty years after its original release, it is now a musical adaptation promising to be a production extravaganza with easy-to-remember tunes and spectacular choreography. It got me thinking that we do have a fascination with mean girls, the popular bullies who make life miserable for others.<\/p>\n

People have contradicting feelings toward mean girls. Just think of the Mean Girls<\/em> movie set on a campus. The stereotypical mean girls are the cheerleaders, walking around in their cute uniforms. They are the high school’s team spirit generators. Many admire them, but many hate them too. They are admired because they usually are good-looking. They have the power to get what they want and even influence some administrators. But they also make life difficult for the underdogs. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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In a 2018 article she wrote in Psychology Today<\/em>, Katie Hurley said, \u201cThe \u2018mean girl\u2019 narrative is so ingrained in our culture that many consider it a \u2018rite of passage\u2019 of sorts when it comes to surviving girlhood.\u201d That means one must grin and bear the existence of and maltreatment by these power-tripping girls and pray they get out alive! And if you suffer from poor mental health from constant bullying, well, you can seek treatment to “get over it.”<\/p>\n

Kirsten was the guest speaker at a women\u2019s event. She admitted to exhibiting mean girl behavior in the past. She said, \u201cI created pain in others!\u201d This aggression resulted from losing her mom when she was only 12. Unable to properly process her grief from her loss, and without a mother to guide her to womanhood, she started watching how other young girls and women behaved. Her young mind was impressed by the beautiful, popular, mean<\/em> girls at school. They got the best of everything and everyone. She decided that becoming one of them was her key to happiness. No one needed to know that she was in pain. She would cause the pain!<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a complex web of insecurity, anxiety, and conditioned attitudes that underlies the mean girl stereotype,\u201d a Newport Academy<\/em> article said. This means the power-tripping mean girl is basically like any other teenager\u2014an immature individual going through self-esteem issues. There\u2019s a lot of growing up and navigation happening within this person\u2019s body, physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. And left to her own whims and fantasies, she can choose to be part of the \u201cqueen bee\u201d group and make life a living nightmare for someone else to mask her own difficulties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mean Girls of the Bible<\/h2>\n

As Solomon says, \u201cThere is nothing new under the sun\u201d (Ecclesiastes 1:9<\/a>). Mean girls have been in existence for thousands of years. Some of them have grown into women, yet never learned to shed their ugly behavior to do the right thing. Let\u2019s look at some of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAhab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him\u201d (1 Kings 16:29-33<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Ahab, who was influenced by his wife, Jezebel, to turn away from the One True God of Israel to become an idolater. Knowing how much God hated graven images and their worship, Ahab provoked his own King.<\/p>\n

Enter Elijah, God\u2019s prophet, who came to Ahab to let him know that God spoke of a drought. During the dry years and while Elijah was away, Jezebel had killed most of God\u2019s prophets except for the 100 hidden away by Obadiah (a man who feared the Lord and oversaw Ahab\u2019s household) in caves.<\/p>\n

In the third year of the drought, there was an \u201caccidental\u201d meeting between Obadiah and Elijah. Elijah, again, was bringing the Word of God to Ahab. This was the message: \u201cYou have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel\u2019s table\u201d (1 Kings 18:18-19<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

God made it known who He was and that Elijah was His mouthpiece through a miraculous battle. And all the prophets of Baal were slaughtered by Elijah:<\/p>\n

\u201cAhab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, \u2018So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.\u2019 Then [Elijah] was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life\u2026\u201d (1 Kings 19:1-3<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps cowering in fear of Jezebel\u2019s wrath, Ahab decided that it was best to break the bad news of the slaying of Baal\u2019s prophets to his mean-spirited wife to stir up her anger. Then, there\u2019s Elijah who allowed a bully\u2019s message to extinguish the fire of God\u2019s victory. He succumbed to becoming a mean girl\u2019s emotional and mental hostage.<\/p>\n

Then there’s Herodias and her daughter\u2019s story. They used their influence to send someone to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip\u2019s wife, because John had been saying to him, \u2018It is not lawful for you to have her.\u2019 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. But when Herod\u2019s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, \u2018Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.\u2019 And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent had John beheaded in prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.\u201d Matthew 14:3-11<\/a><\/p>\n

An adulterous relationship was confronted by John and the involved parties didn\u2019t like the message. The mean girls\u2019 team of mother and daughter worked together to execute a perfect death plan. \u201cOff with John\u2019s head!\u201d was the special request to the king. And then there was no more voice of righteousness to convict Herod and Herodias of their affair.<\/p>\n

Evil Begets Evil!<\/h2>\n

Why is it so important to be the top dog? Kirsten, the guest speaker, said she used to scope out the room to find the current reigning \u201cqueen\u201d and strategically planned her fall. Kirsten needed to be the alpha female and did everything in her power to make it happen!<\/p>\n

A mean girl\u2019s desire to control everything begins when her life is in chaos! Jezebel\u2019s prophets of Baal were dead, and she needed to punish Elijah for this. Herodias didn\u2019t want to be reminded of her sin, so she needed to remove John from the picture. James said, \u201cSin when it is fully grown brings forth death\u201d (1:15).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s wake up and see the truth! Mean girls are not worth emulating, even if they are portrayed as the popular people in society and are sometimes celebrated on TV, film, and social media! Mean girl motivations are wrong, and they need to be corrected before they destroy others. Just think of the influence of Jezebel to her husband and Herodias to her daughter. Not good at all!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul said, \u201cTake no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, \u2018Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you\u2019\u201d (Ephesians 5:11-14<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In the end, mean girls will also destroy themselves. Just watch the ending of the Mean Girls\u00a0<\/em>movie, if you get the chance. The Apostle Paul encourages us to \u201clook carefully then how [we] walk, not as unwise but as wise!\u201d while there is still time (Ephesians 5:15<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: \u00a9Getty Images\/MangoStar_Studio<\/span><\/p>\n

Luisa Collopy\u00a0<\/strong>is an author, speaker and a women\u2019s Bible study teacher. She also produces Mula sa Puso (From the Heart) in Tagalog (her heart language), released on FEBC Philippines stations. Luisa loves spending time with her family over meals and karaoke!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n