are we blind?!

After walking through the checkout line in Giant Eagle today, I got pretty angry. Tabloids are tabloids, but they reveal bitter truth about society. And yes, we are all keeping a watchful eye the government, politics, international relations, etc., but somehow I feel like we are overlooking way too much.


Is there any respect left for sex?... For marriage?... For families?...



There is a vicious cycle occurring that is ripping apart society as we know it. Although it's been going on for quite some time, nearly everything is geared towards sex, and I am so sick of it! The perversion of something so beautiful as a physical expression of love between wife and husband--an act of selfless giving to each other--has been turned into self-filled pleasure coupled with exploitation.

And the sad part is...

How young kids are being filled with such notions.

These stats are from 2007, compiled into a booklet from an event I attended in Pittsbugh, called BattleCry. And I'm sure they have gone up (or down) since then.

-Every 6.7 scenes on television include a sexual topic.
-The most watched teen network is MTV, where more than 30,000 soft porn images are broadcast every week.
-Average age of first sex: 15.8 years old.
-Average age of first internet exposure to pornography is 11.
-The largest consumer of internet pornography is currently, young people ages 12-17.

And on and on the list goes! It's sick!!! The internet, tv, all forms of media purge our brains with everything sex. It's no wonder it's a problem!

And because sex is so free... then who needs marriage! Right? Wrong. I was told that being physically intimate leads to a false sense of closeness. It's not the relationship... It's an expression of it. The emotional wreckage is incredible! Broken, aching hearts everywhere... A wonderful expression of love at the wrong time.

What we need is a monumental perspective change. A book I recently read, The Red Tent, set during the time of Rachel, Jacob, and Leah, tells a story through Dinah's eyes. Even as a child Dinah saw the dogs and knew what was going on during a brother's honeymoon. All the same it was out in the open. Not something hidden. Not something to be ashamed of. Sex was (and still is) a beautiful fact of life. Maybe if more parental guidance was present to shape the views and intentions of it all there wouldn't be as much of a problem. To keep something hidden in the dark, almost as a secret, is sometimes the cause for total rebellion. Now, I am by no means saying that we just need to blatantly expose children to this. We just need to convey the worth, value, and understanding of it all.

Then we have marriage. It scares me how little respect this gets. All over the place. People marrying, divorcing, not marrying and just having kids, etc. like it's nothing (and of course there are times when it is best to be out of a relationship). This is like a bloodbath on the family system. This was not intended.

And in the end we have the cycle of false intimacy leading to emotional wreckage. How can we have healthy relationships in such conditions?

Love. Pure love. Holy love. Unconditional love. Love no matter what. Love that says I forgive you. Love that wipes out the hurt, fear, and pain. We fail to see it! We too often fail to grasp hold of it! This eternal Love that never, never ends and is always reaching for us! We can't love everyone with the real Love we need. That can only come from the one true God.

Perfect love drives out fear.

Only the One Who made us can love us perfectly with the love we really need.. To know that we are always accepted, loved, cherished, thought of, cared for, forgiven, heard.

God so longs to make us whole and complete through Jesus Christ. If we all came to realize how crazy the Lord is over us, how jealously and madly in love with us God is. Then...

~We'd be able to forgive each other a little easier, knowing that we are forgiven.
~We would accept each other, knowing that we are accepted.
~We would be enabled to love each other, knowing that we are loved.
You get the idea.

And then...
We could have better, healthier relationships, all because we have a relationship with the One--Father, Son, Holy Spirit. More respect. Better marriages. Healthy families. Better society.