I am just now getting around to writing about something that I witnessed earlier this month, because I have been praying and seeking out the words I need for this post.
A comment I heard that will forever trouble me. "I'm your boyfriend and I've been inside you. That makes it my vagina too. And I can share it with anyone I want." Does that remark upset you too? Is it perhaps more disturbing to find out that it was made by a teenage boy to his girlfriend, intent on allowing two of his friends to have sex with her in public? Or that these boys were trying to force her to give in, after she had repeatedly refused?
In a way, I'm glad I was there to witness this because the boys kept looking my way to see if I was paying attention to them. I was, and as they were leaving, they were stopped by a lifeguard and the police. I don't know what happened to them after that, but I can say that I am thankful that the girl was able to go a little while longer without being physically injured.
Are we going back to the Dark Ages? Where is Women's Lib? When did it become acceptable to treat a woman like a piece of property again? Why is it okay to objectify a woman to the point that she is merely a trophy on a shelf, another notch on the bedpost? It says something about us as a whole - that all we do is talk anymore. We aren't teaching our young men what it means to be a gentleman anymore. We haven't taught them much of anything except drugs, sex, violence, and the like. Our girls haven't escaped either. We tell them to respect and value themselves, but practically in the same breath we are pointing out all of their troubles and telling them that they don't deserve to be cherished or respected. We are (as a society) stealing their self love and self respect away from them. We are so focused on telling our youth how to be what we think they should be that they lose sight of who they are and how to become who they want to be.
It is time to make a change. We need to take time from our busy lives and not just tell, because words are cheap, but show those who are looking up to us how to live as God calls us to. There are so many children and teenagers out there who act they way they do just to get a little attention from the adults in their lives. That attention is so rare that these kids don't care if it is positive or negative attention; Someone has noticed them. If we want them to grow up to be healthy adults, then we need to reach them now. If we don't, picture our world in twenty years with all of its current problems and the children who are all determined to get as much as possible for as little as possible trying to run it. That isn't a pretty thought. So let's get out there and do something about it. Let's all live our lives the way God desires for us, so that those who are watching (and we don't always know when they are) see God in our lives.
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