I have been so excited to take a breather, sit down on the patio on a cool morning and blog about all of the amazing things in my life. The past month has been amazing and plum full of blessings to blog about for the glory of our wonderful God. As I was making these plans, today happened.
When I first introduced my blog, I mentioned it would be multifaceted...devotional, personal, reflective and sometimes a little "rant." Well, today will be one of those "rant" days. I will start this "rant" with a question..."what are we doing to our girls?"
As my daughter and I got out of the pool from swimming a few laps today, we happed upon a very disturbing scene in the locker room. Standing in front of the scale were three young middle school girls dressed in tiny bikinis. As we walked past and began to open our locker we heard gasps of shock and dismay behind us. Looking to see what the exasperation was about, my eyes fell upon the three girls each weighing herself on the scale.
This scene was disturbing on many levels. The very first level being that of the desire of "sex appeal" at the age of these young girls. Of course, this did come as a total surprise, as we had just seen a 6-7 year old girl with a padded swimsuit to make her look about 14. My heart was so sad because the comments these girls were making about their appearance were things that only girls thinking about impressing a boy for sexual reasons would be saying. This scene was disturbing on another level, that of size. As I looked at them and listened as they spoke about their bodies, they began to talk about where they needed to lose unwanted weight, where they needed to tighten up and where they needed to increase in size. Seriously? I could see the backbone and hip bones of at least one and could easily put one hand around each of their thighs.
What in the world is going on that this is the life that young middle school girls are living? I know there are serious and real concerns with true eating disorders, but I am simply talking about what "we" as a collective society are doing to our young girls? This type of mentality does not just "happen." The first culprit we are all quick to point at is the "media." It must be those shows they watch, those books they read, those magazines they subscribe to, those songs they listen to, those videos they enjoy...and the blame list goes on. Let me just tell you, it is not the fault of the media, it is the fault of those in the lives of young girls today. Whether it be the mothers who are sold out to the "body image is everything" life, the best friend who encourages the dysfunction, the dad who is absent or indulges in pornography in the home, or the church who does not teach identity in Christ, it is "our" fault. We MUST, as parents, friends, family, teachers, counselors, friends, church family, etc., take a stand and let girls know that they must live from the inside out and not the outside in. We have to be the ones to stand up and tell them that the beauty of the body fades but the lasting heart of godly woman is what sustains through the years. And about that media, the "WE" mentioned here controls the media to which our girls are exposed. Perhaps if we would encourage our girls to turn off "Pretty Little Liars" and put down "Cosmo Teen" it would be a first start to helping this generation.
