So here's the deal with this post: it has nothing to do with Zeway. I needed to vent my frustrations with what I just saw....this is pretty raw emotion for me - no editing, no making it look and sound pretty. I think its rawness needs to show. These are thoughts that have been rolling around in my heart for the past 6 or 7 months, and tonight they won't hold inside anymore.
I just caught the end of The Bachelor, and I watched as a girl cried because she didn't get a rose, because she felt that "she doesn't open up immediately, and because she has a wall built up around her heart." She was upset because she thinks she didn't get a rose because she refused to give herself away to a man she'd only known a few weeks. THEN, if that weren't enough - the preview for next week ended with this BEAUTIFUL girl saying "I just want to get a rose. I want him to see me as beautiful." THIS IS THE PROBLEM!!! So many women who are absolutely BEAUTIFUL are totally and completely reliant on a GUY to tell them of their beauty. We are no one (so we think) until some guy comes along and pronounces us as pretty. Why do we as a species continue to allow another creature (fallen, I might add, just like us) to define us? To tell us what we are, what we aren't, and make us feel either on top of the world, or like we are being trampled on in a marathon. And the most sad thing of it all? It happens consistently to daughters of God. Women, made in the image and likeness of the Living God, falling into the trap of our identity being in those around us. It infurates me. It makes me want to grab every woman I see and speak of her beauty - speak truth into her heart of who she really resembles. Of the One who it really matters to resemble. We get sucked into believing lies that we aren't truly beautiful (pretty, cute, insert your own word here) unless we are told repeatedly by the men around us. My heart actually hurts thinking about how many women are being held in slavery to this idea. What is it going to take to allow us to break free? To break the chains that hold us captive to these thoughts that control us?
If you are a guy and reading this...I have a few thoughts - total freedom to take or leave them: Be careful with us. Speak truth into our lives, but don't feed into this mentality that unless you tell us we are beautiful, we're nothing. Remind us that our identity isn't found in you, or anyone other than our Creator. Love us for who we are, not who you need or want us to be. Remind us often that we are created in the image and likeness of Christ - and that it is enough. Remind us that He is and has deemed us as beautiful creations, and that we are daughters of the LIVING GOD! Remind us that what we see around us (media, publicity for the next best beauty product) isn't truth. And most of all: pray for us. Pray that God will redeem us from believing what the world is telling us, and that we will see ourselves the way our Father in heaven sees us. I once had a guy friend tell me that he was praying that I wouldn't believe the lies that TV and the world wants me to believe about who I needed to be - and I can't tell you how much that encouraged me. Part of it was the simple fact that it was recognized as a struggle we deal with, but mainly because I knew he was helping me to believe it wasn't true. By praying for me, he was helping me see myself as Christ sees me. So guys - know that it makes a difference. Even if you never tell us that you are praying for us - as we begin to see ourselves in new, healthy ways, we will know it.
*I realize that this post might sound like I'm totally there, that these aren't things I wrestle with. While I wish that were true, it's not. The lies, thankfully, come less than they used to, but when they hit, they still hit hard. I've learned that I have to have a foundation for truth to be built on, and once that is built, it's easier to resist the lies. This is my struggle, too.
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