Stop Selling Women's Bodies!

I am so sick of seeing commercials and television programs that sell a woman's body, talking about it as if it is just an object.
 Why? Because:

• 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men experience violence from their partners in their lifetimes.

• 1 in 5 women are survivors of rape.

• 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced some form of sexual victimization in their lives.

The Hooter's commercial that played during the National College Football Championship Game totally made me angry on so many levels because I have done research on the effects of over-sexualized media and its important role in perpetrating sexual misconduct. I want to ask Hooters: Do you guys really see women as a sex object? How is Hooter's business model any different than a pimp selling a woman on the street? Sure, women aren't being forced into working at your restaurant, but the premise is the same: Hooters is selling women's bodies in their TV ad. How does this affect young girls watching? They only see that their bodies are to be bartered with and used, and men must interested in women's bodies without any attachment or care for their humanity, personalities, emotions, or mental capabilities. I know all men are not like that (for one, my dad and my husband). But those ads tell a teenage girl who is searching for love, "Hey, you can get love by giving your body." It makes them see themselves as so much LESS than the beautiful creation God has made them to be.

I was equally angered by the commercials for the upcoming "Fifty Shades of Gray" movie. How sick are we as a society that we actually applaud and participate in sexual bondage. The commercial for this movie made me sick to my stomach. Seeing a woman in front of a man with a whip in his hand in the scene of a commercial being shown to children during a ball game should make you want to throw up, too. Do you understood the horrendous hell that so many women enslaved in sex trafficking are enduring as we speak? We CANNOT support these degradations of women. You see, these types of movies and businesses only fuel the demonic thirst for sexual violence, which manifests in an ever-growing pornography industry and sex trafficking industry.

Sexual violence such as rape is on the rise, but we shouldn't be surprised by that, now should we? After all, we act like it's normal. Millions of women went and saw Magic Mike and read the book Fifty Shades of Gray. We as women are just as guilty for supporting this trash with our hard-earned money. We are perpetrating sexual degradation when we support anything that objectifies a woman's body or devalues sex into something bought and sold. We are saying it's okay when we support anything that sells women or men's bodies.

Listen up, world! A WOMAN IS MUCH MORE THAN HER BODY! AND WE ARE NOT FOR SALE. We are tired of being treated like objects in your sick, commercialized, greedy grab for men's attention.

Yes, God did make a woman's body to grab the attention of a man—her husband's. It's one of the most beautiful things about marriage, that we can share life together, spirit, soul and body. But when you cheapen it into something to be conquered, lusted after and adulterated, it destroys the beautiful purpose.

Women are to be protected, cherished, loved, and respected. A woman is not the sum of her breast-to-waistline ratio. She is not something to be conquered. She is not an object to fulfill a lustful fantasy on. She is not something to be mastered or lorded over. Her body is not something to be sold. It's something one man should earn and cherish for a lifetime.

Rant over. But the war on women is not.

This problem is a serious one, but it's nothing new. Check out Genesis 1-3. Genesis 3:15 shows us a glimpse of a conversation between God and the enemy of humankind, Satan:
The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

There is a war on women. There always has been and there always will be. Which side are you on? Who are you supporting with your media choices? You're casting your vote with your time and money. Choose wisely, please, for the sake of all who are suffering sexual assault today.

For more information and to support an organization making a difference, check out:
www.thea21campaign.org
www.xxxchurch.com
www.mencanstoprape.org
www.sherescue.org
www.nomore.org

Modesty is More at Golden Globes 2015

Watching the Golden Globes 2015, I was struck by a few things:

1. Are these awards a joke? The Hollywood Foreign Press seems to pick the most bizarre movies out there and overlook the obvious cream of the crop. But maybe that's the point of the Golden Globes. Go for the not-so-obvious.
2. Another not-so-obvious choice was the turn toward modesty by many of the attendees. While you may think sexy means showing the most skin possible, these stars' gowns would say otherwise. In fact, the stars who did wear ultra-revealing gowns seems garish and out of place to me. It cheapened their natural beauty. There were many beautiful styles and dresses to admire, but the ones that really stood out to me as the most flattering did not feature high slits or plunging necklines. The following prove that modesty is more.

Amy Adams looked both feminine and classy in her soft draping gown, channeling Grace Kelly and Old Hollywood eras.

Allison Williams took the award for best dressed in my book, with this effervescent ensemble.

 Amal Clooney looked radiant and ultra classy in her chic side-shoulder-draping gown.

 Lupita Nyongo's playful, feminine ensemble was a taste of Spring!

Motto to the story: You don't have to show 99% of your boobs or legs to make a statement. Modesty is more.

Plastic

We live in a plastic society. Plastic surgery, plastic eyelashes, spray tans, acrylic fingernails, and many other beauty tricks have set a very high standard for what we call attractive. Not to mention that most of the pictures you see have been airbrushed. Just Google “airbrushed images” and you’ll see stars getting the treatment. We see thousands of images everyday, and we compare ourselves to them, pretty harshly I might add. But guess what…they are plastic, too! Ever since we were little girls many of us have allowed our body image and self-worth to be based on whether or not we looked like (you guessed it) a PLASTIC doll called Barbie.

So why does the beauty and magazine industry airbrush the life out of people? They want you to buy the lie so you BUY THEIR PRODUCTS. The beauty industry makes billions of dollars on selling face lifts, fake breasts, liposuction and more. They know that we women want to fit in, to be worthy of admiration. And we will pay to look the part of Barbie.

We even have plastic cards that give us a false sense of wealth, buying beauty with money we don’t have, so we can look like people who have been airbrushed, after all.

No, there’s nothing wrong with looking great. There’s nothing wrong with makeup or fashion. In fact, God is the Author of all things beautiful. But those things are just icing on the cake. They are nothing to obsess over, to lose sleep over. God certainly thinks more highly of you and I than we do of ourselves, and He probably has to chuckle at our attempts to be “beautiful” when He knows the truth.

Real beauty comes from the inside. It’s love. It’s confidence. It’s your personality. It’s your skin color, your natural-born beauty that God is crazy about. After all, He’s the Master Artist, and He created the amazing wonder that is YOU. The truth is you are lovable and worthy of admiration just the way you are. And the other reality is if we value ourselves, we will be healthier and happier. And that is something even an airbrush artist can’t create.

By the way, Barbie called, and she wants her life back. She doesn’t like being packaged and sold in plastic boxes any more than God likes his daughters to be.

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body," (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Waiting for Your Someone?

I wanted to share something with you single ladies. I wrote this letter to my future husband back before I met him. In fact, I did this whenever I felt lonely. It helped me remember not to settle for what was available (the guys asking me out who I knew weren’t God’s best) but to wait for what was MINE. MY someone.

You have a Someone, and maybe you have not met them yet, but they are out there. As long as you are loving God, you are not far away from your Someone, because God knows exactly where he is right now.

So here’s an entry from my “Someone” journal. By the way, my husband Jason got to read this journal as one of my wedding gifts to him…

My Dear Someone,

Just thinking about you lately. Kind of like a birthday gift you know is coming, I have a sense of expectancy about you. Sure, I’ve known God would give me the gift of a wonderful mate, but it seems very near. I’ve reached a point where I am content with being single and I’ve actually grown to enjoy it in some ways. That’s saying something because for the past years, I’ve felt so impatient, spending many hours in either sadness, self-pity or insecurity over the fact that I’ve never, and I repeat, NEVER had a boyfriend. Granted, this is something I chose because I know you are there. We are both living for a greater purpose, and we will meet when it will bring the most good for us and for the Kingdom of God.

I’m so in love with my Jesus that it’s thrilling to just talk to Him. I love to lay here on these starless nights and have heart-to-heart talks with Him. Usually you come up in the conversation either because I ask about you or pray for you. I tell my siblings and others that if I’m serving God and you’re serving Him, then we can’t be too far away from each other.

At times I have a temptation to feel remorse over the fact that you are missing moments in my life or I am missing special times in yours right now, but really our faith gives us a history with one another.

I believe if two people are in love with the Father, they have in a sense known each other since they were born again because they both know the same Source of Life. If that’s where you find your identity and I find mine, then we know the most important thing about each other already even before meeting. And that gives me comfort.

I pray for you often and think of you so much. Hope you pray for me too. Hold on to the promises of God that are beyond wonderful. He blesses me with indescribable joy, despite the pain of this life. I am more than a conqueror through Him who loves me and has called me to his beautiful purpose. I know you understand that no matter how much I will love you, He will always come first.

I love you already.

Amy