It’s time to submit your entry for the 2021 Covenant Eyes Scholarship and Kenneth Bowen Annual Scholarship! For the 12th consecutive year, Covenant Eyes is pleased to offer financial support to students and promote their use of Covenant Eyes accountability software!
Last year, we received 123 qualified submissions to our scholarship essay writing contest, and each essay left a profound impact on our company. Due to the large number of exceptionally written, high-scoring essays we received, our Executive Leadership Team awarded 105 scholarships, nearly five times the number we typically award.
As we prepare to read this year’s essay submissions, we want to share one student’s essay, submitted in 2020. J is a student at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. He wrote a compelling essay explaining how his father has protected him over the years:
“Some of my most memorable childhood experiences happened at that special place cherished by many people today: the movie theatre. I was always very fond of going to the movies and enjoyed being engaged by gripping stories and adventures. One thing I never quite understood, however, was the presence of romantic scenes in these movies. My Dad would often reach over and cover my eyes when two characters began kissing, or when they got into bed with one another. The reason why my Dad covered my eyes at the theatre remained a mystery to me. Growing up, however, my parents eventually taught me about that famous three-letter word: sex. It would take years before the gravity of “sex” weighed in on me.
Eventually, however, I began to understand that humans were designed to be attracted to the opposite sex. My parents began to “connect the dots” by explaining how the movies we watched in the theatre were taking this good idea of sex and twisting it into something evil. They also explained that pornography was the visual depiction of sexual immorality. They helped me understand the difference between attraction and lust: the former is natural, arising from the innate desires God has given us; the latter is sinful, arising from temptation to sexual immorality. I finally began to understand that sex itself was good, but that the exploitation of sex for personal gratification outside of marriage was immoral.
As a Christian, I began to understand what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 6:18 when he said ‘FLEE from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.’ I realized that pornography was exalted and even revered all around the world: in magazines and movies–but most prominently, on the internet. This is when my parents introduced our family to Covenant Eyes.
Because of this new system, our family could have new conversations about the danger of lust and the importance of accountability. This new system has guarded my eyes from the perversity of the internet and kept me far from the raging river of pornography. I have now had Covenant Eyes installed on all of my devices for years, and the impacts of this system on my life are manifold.
For example, it has created a sense of transparency between me and my parents, eliminating the need for me to be secretive about my internet activity. Covenant Eyes has also helped me personally: it has shown me that while I am accountable for my actions before my parents, I am most importantly accountable before God. In short, it has helped me to develop a sense of self-discipline. I don’t merely avoid pornography to please my parents, but to build stronger character and to ultimately please God.
Today, I strive to make my life consistent with Paul’s injunction in 2 Timothy 2:22: ‘flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.’ Now I think I know why Covenant Eyes bothers filtering pornography and other explicit content–it is for the same reason that my father used to cover my eyes in the movies when I was a little boy: it is because of love.”
We want to help you pay for college!
Want to enter this year’s essay contest for a chance to receive scholarship money? If you’re a student, we want you to!
All applicants must be enrolled in college with a full-time course schedule in the fall of 2021. All applicants must be users of Covenant Eyes with their own usernames, and each applicant is eligible to receive the Covenant Eyes scholarship one time. To learn more about this year’s scholarship opportunities and submit your own entry, visit the scholarship home page below.
We can’t wait to read each of your submissions!
