In the past week, I have read no fewer than three blog posts
that were in some way related to the desire/need/responsibility that older
Christian women have for their younger sisters in the faith. Heaven knows, that’s
the pink sparkly drum that I beat on this blog and the bedazzled soapbox that I
get up on when given the chance. Christian women ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR LITTLE
SISTERS. I don’t know how to say it any clearer than that. We are commanded. It
is our duty. It is our joy if it is done with the right attitude.
I guess I’ll go ahead and bite the bullet: Fifty Shades
of Grey. There. I said it. I haven’t read the books. Here’s the thing,
though: I don’t have to read the books to know that I don’t need to read them. The
consensus is that they’re about an unmarried couple who are in a sexual,
S&M relationship, and later get married and have kids. There is apparently
also at least one graphic sex scene depicted in the first book.
I’m not telling you not to read the books. I’m not saying
you’re a bad person if you read them. What I am saying to my sisters in Christ,
older AND younger, is this: please, just give it some thought. Does reading this book honor God? Are the mental images from this book something that you want
playing across the movie screen of your mind for years to come? Do you want
your teenage daughter/sister/niece to see you reading them and assume that it
must be ok for them, if it’s ok for you?
I know this is a touchy subject. But here’s what else I
know. I have made the mistake of reading stuff like this before. I know what it
does to your mind. And you better believe that I will step in and say something
(already have) if it means protecting one of my younger sisters. A woman I know has an 18-year-old daughter who purchased the Grey
series upon the recommendation of some women
at her church. I am so appalled by this that I don’t even have words. My friend had never heard of the series before her daughter bought it and was
also appalled. Where were the godly women who should be protecting this young girl’s
heart and mind?
And now we have reached my actual point. As the Church, the
bride of Christ, we have been given the command to be transformed by the
renewing of our minds (Romans 12.2) and to think about things that are pure,
noble, lovely and praiseworthy (Philippians 4.8). We are responsible for encouraging
our younger sisters in the faith to do the same and for setting an example for them (an
imperfect one, to be sure).
I’m 29. I have fantastic older Christian sisters/mothers.
But right now I feel the lack in my life of having an older woman look me in
the face and ask the hard questions about my prayer life, my relationship with
the Lord, my thought life. I want someone to pray (out loud) with me.
But just as important, I want/need to be doing it for
someone else. I can’t justify this in my own life if I am not doing it for
someone else. And by ‘it’ I mean investing intentionally into someone younger
than me. Fighting for her on the battlefield of
her precious life.
More than wanting to share my opinion on a book series, this
is about a deep-seated passion in my own life to reach out to a younger
generation and to call other women of God to do the same. We have to, ladies,
or they’re going to get discouraged and may even give up on the faith—it’s not
easy to be a young Christian woman in this world.
I’m going to fight for them. So help me God (literally), I
will do what I can to protect my little sisters. Won’t you do the same?
CC
