Sunday, February 8, 2015

50 Shades

Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and there has been something laying on my heart for a while now. Although they are rhetorical, I have some real questions….
My husband and I have been blessed the last 3 days to have our granddaughter come for sleepover. Like many grandparents with their grandchildren, we have read books, played lots of games, snuggled with her, and just listened to her chatter about her life. We loved every second. I found myself wondering, as I did with her Momma, what she will be when she grows up.
Never in my mind did I think, “I hope she grows up to be sexually tortured by a man. I hope she is seduced, dominated, and humiliated by some guy in a suit”, like the young woman in “50 Shades…..”
Yet, apparently many other parents and grandparents appear to approve of that for the little girls in their life: their daughters, nieces, granddaughters, daughters of friends…….
I truly am astonished at this, and I truly don’t know why anyone would want that for our granddaughter, or any other girl. But, in fact, I’m told it’s a “good story line”, and “it’s quite entertaining to read about and watch in movies.”
Really? Entertaining?
The definition of entertaining:
en•ter•tain•ing
ˌen(t)ərˈtāniNG/
adjective
1. providing amusement or enjoyment
So, it’s amusing/enjoyable for a young woman to be tortured? Truly?
I respectfully disagree.
In 1978, while asleep in my home, a man, who turned out to be a serial rapist, broke in through a window. As I spent the night being raped, tortured, and dominated, I did not consider it to be entertainment. As he held a weapon next to my head and pulled the trigger (thank God it wasn't loaded), I was not thinking this is a “good story line”. That night was not entertaining, but in fact, horrifyingly life-changing. Nearing 40 years later, I still remember the sound of his voice and the words he said. Mostly, I remember the sheer terror of it all.
It is a fact: Girls everywhere pay a price when we teach men to be turned on by women in pain!!
I am told “50 Shades” is only a story…….but, true stories of girls being kidnapped and tortured for use as sex slaves is becoming nearly commonplace, as in the 3 young women finally rescued in Cleveland; the over 200-300 young girls kidnapped FROM THEIR SCHOOL in Nigeria to be sold off as wives; the kidnapping and raping of Elizabeth Smart; the kidnapping/rape/torture/mutilation of females of all ages by Islamic terrorists that continues today in the Middle East; and on and on………
I am sickened by these events. Isn't everyone but the creeps who do it?
I just don’t understand how the glamorization of violence and abuse is "entertaining"? How does it make a “good story”?
The ad for “50” says the young woman is: “Humiliated. Battered. Abused. Controlled. Degraded. Entrapped. Isolated. Threatened. Coerced. Manipulated. Tortured.”
How is a guy doing all those things to someone’s daughter/niece/granddaughter okay? Even “okay” enough to pay money to watch it?
Would it still be as “good” a story if every time you looked at the young woman in this film, you saw the face of the sweet, little girl in your life?
Would you want to watch her being tortured and sexually abused?
Would you want people to pay money to watch your “little girl” being victimized?
Truly, would you?

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Bubble Gum Joy

Have you ever chewed a piece of gum? Although I don't very often now, I did as a child. I remember chewing the bubble gum that came in little squares wrapped in comics. It tasted scrumptious! As kids, it brought us joy to chew gum and blow bubbles all day. The flavor didn't last long though, so as soon as one piece lost its flavor, we would spit it out, and pop in another one. 

How simple, at times, it can be to feel joy. It often seems that if we are having a day that suits us for the moment, then it's a joyful kind of day. For some that is a day filled with excitement, for others it might be a quiet day full of reflection, and still for others, it might be a day when we have accomplished a lot on our "to do" lists. Everyone finds their "bubble gum joy" in different ways. Like the flavor of bubble gum, though, it only lasts a little while. It can disappear at the first sign of clouds on our horizon. So, anxious not to lose that feeling, we pop in another piece, or better said...we look for joy in other places. Continually searching for that fleeting fresh taste of "bubble gum joy". 

But what about the joy that fills the deepest part of you?
 The deep joy that will sustain you on even your darkest of days? The kind of joy that brings a peacefulness with it, and will not,
 WILL NOT
 go away no matter what looms on our horizon?
The kind of joy that never loses it's flavor? 
What kind of day brings us that joy? 

There isn't one kind of day that brings deep, lasting joy. That joy is supernatural. It can only come from a right-relationship with God. It does not depend on the  kind of day we are having. 
Unlike "bubble gum joy", it will never lose its flavor.
 NEVER! 

How does one get it? 
It comes from spending daily time with Jesus, and reading God's Word, the Bible. With His help, we can align ourselves and our lives up with what the Bible teaches. Each day, putting our priorities in the correct order that will serve Him and glorify Him.

 God is the Creator of joy! 

Who better to place that deep, lasting joy inside you than Him?
A life spent in daily communion with God will cause you to be filled with deep, abiding joy, that will fill you with His peace. Then, no matter what kind of day you might have, it is still a day filled with joy!!

 May the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
Romans 15:13 

  You, Lord, make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

A Constant Calling



There is a constant calling throughout the Bible, a calling to worship the Holy Triune God. To obey, to follow, to imitate, to submit to, to allow Him to steer me, to guide me, to mold me, to inhabit and consume me. Most of all, a calling to love and worship Him, and allow Him to manifest His tremendous Love towards me. His Love has already been shown to all the world, by the sending of a Savior. A Savior who was God and Man, Jesus, God’s only begotten Son. Spotless, sinless, loving, and perfect, He took my sins upon His shoulders, and gave His life up. Sins so horrible and grievous that I can’t bear to think about them. Sins worthy of death many times over. Yet, Jesus bore them as He hung dying on that cross, rising again in Victory three days later!! What an act of Supreme Love towards me!! Even more so, it was an act of Supreme Love and Obedience to His Father, my Father and God.

What can you say to that? What do I say to that? Thank you? Yes, of course I thank Him, out loud and loudly, forever…but there is more. I see the very least I can do is to live in an attitude of praise and worship, pure thankfulness to God. Then, to answer the calling…..to love Him, follow Him and His example, to obey Him, and to imitate Him. To do only those things that are pleasing to my Lord. I must allow the Holy Spirit to blow through me, filling me up to overflowing, and equipping me for the work God has already called me to. To love God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with all that I am, always and forever. To glorify God and Him alone in all I say and do. My desire is for Him, and to share Him with the World, with whomever will hear. For Him to increase, and me to decrease.


“For I am the Lord your God: you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.” Lev. 11:44