Lord, you have spoken to my heart about not showing my body to just anyone. These vulnerable areas are sacred and beautiful and to be honored and saved for my future husband. There’s a vulnerability when you both get to be naked and unashamed before one another because it relates to Adam and Eve. They were originally naked and then when they sinned they were aware of their nakedness and felt shame and wanted to cover up.
But there is an innocence to nakedness. To bear yourself before someone and show yourself in a way that you aren’t hiding. You trust this person to see all of you (physically, spiritually, emotionally) and the right person would honor, respect and cherish this. Not to be sexualized, or embarrass you for their own consumption and desires. But to see past the physical even to connect spiritually.
It’s such a beautiful thing to think about. And it’s sad how culture/the world misses this and makes it so casual and seem so normalized to go around doing without recognizing God’s purpose behind it. Where two become one.
I don’t judge those living this way, I grieve for this. Because I had that mindset as well – not understanding the value and purpose of our beauty and our bodies.
Women have been so sexualized and taught to become consumable to men. To post things that are revealing or look pretty with filters and likes, etc. It’s been about drawing attention and validation. The more people that desire or want the person, the more influence they have for some reason. And how do they wield this influence? Teaching the next generation of young girls to change themselves. That since they aren’t getting attention or validation on outward appearance, something’s wrong or they aren’t pretty enough.
Culture tries to snatch and misguide their identity. You have those girls that feel depressed, hurt themselves, get eating disorders, etc because they are trying to become something they’re not. To become culture’s current view of ‘beauty’.
And then on the other side, you have girls oversexualizing themselves, trying to make themselves look older, wear revealing clothes, tons of makeup, sexual immorality, etc. And those become the ‘popular’ or ‘cool’ kids at school. So the other girls desire to be like that. And they get taken advantage of, hurt, end up in the wrong places, seen as consumable and not valued.
Both sides are misunderstood and broken by culture. Lord, I bet it hurts your heart. These girls don’t know their identity, and culture tries to tell them what it is. Culture’s motivation is money. If they can create an ideal that’s unattainable, you have people spending and spending for nose jobs, face lifts, butt injections, fat removals, make-up, hair, nails, etc etc. But our identity is found in you.
This is something I’m just learning, because I was that broken girl, and was on one end and started making my way towards the other and the Lord rescued me. How do we help these girls (of all ages), recognize their beauty? That the standard shown in media/culture is not real and not how they should compare? How do we show them you, your love for them, that you specifically created them so uniquely, that every piece was crafted and thought out by you?
And the men. Society sucks them into sexualizing women from such a young age and they grow up having a certain idea/understanding of how women should look, do, act, and how they can satisfy their needs and urges. So they go looking for it. And then some get hurt, view it as a sport, try to lift their own ego and it ends with both sides being broken. The traumas and hurts can lead to perversion and aggression in wanting control over women, seeing them not as people but objects for their pleasure or control. These are systematic, humanity issues.
How do we teach the world to value human life? Because this is not valued in war and other areas as well.
I have so much empathy for the girls/women because I’ve felt it, been in it, and felt the hurt and pain of it. I can see the men’s side as well. Trying to understand what leads them to do certain things and act certain ways.
How do we bring transformation? Some don’t recognize the destructive path they’re going towards. How do we help them early on, knowing their identity in you, your love for each of them? Helping to not expose them so early. This is so sad Lord. How do we help others see and understand these truths? What do we do?
Your vulnerability and empathy is moving and we take notice. The more we speak about these issues and feelings outwardly the more likely we, as children of God, aré able to make informed decisions as to how we should move forward with this journey of life. May the Lord grant us all peace and comfort.
Admitting we were once lost and caught up in the worldly ways is not easy (so kudos to you). When we realize how much God loves us and forgives us for our old ways, there is a heavy burden lifted. Once that is weight is gone, it takes the pressure off us to share our past mistakes and behaviors. With the power of the Holy Spirit, we do our best not to live that way anymore and our desire to help others step out of the darkness grows. Although we can’t change others, we can still share our testimonies so they can see transformation is possible because we are living proof. Keep planting seeds : )