I want to preface this touchy topic by saying that I don’t like spending time on a negative society issue. With the Practically Speaking MOM ministry, I try to fill you with hope and give you action items for your family to be strong. You can intentionally impact your family mightily no matter what society around us is choosing. However, I just feel that God was really compelling me to speak to you on a society issue and I pray that it will impact your perspective about the morality crisis that we find ourselves in current days.
Let me explain why this issue was so heavy on my heart this week, especially if you are reading this later than when it originally was written. This past Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. I'm trying to think.... is there any time of the year when more families are tuned in to tv together – the entire nation watching the same thing at once? I think this might be the family tv moment of the year – Super Bowl Sunday. Now I’m not into sports but this year I was much more interested because in my heart I’ll always be a Kansas girl since I lived there longer in my life than anywhere else and this year the KC Chiefs had made it to the Super Bowl for the first in fifty years. Here’s what I’ve been wrestling with this week as the social media chatter has been much about the halftime show…
💕
Okay, here we go!
Please hear my heart and know that I am speaking from a place of love and brokenness, not anger and arrogance. Here’s what I’ve been wrestling with this week...
My heart aches because I want the daughters of our society to have role models who model more than a barely-covered body dancing in seductive ways during the biggest national family event of the year.
My heart aches because I want our sons to value women for much more than their ability to seduce...
And I want all of us to see sex as not something that is cheap or public or easily available. No, it is sacred. It is to be treasured. It is far too precious to be flaunted from a stage or depicted in scenes and music and conversation everywhere we turn. Sexuality was designed by God to be intimate and precious.
Then at the same time that I feel so passionately about all of that, I hesitate to bring this up at all. Why? Well, I’m wrestling with speaking up because I don't want our society to hear Christians complain about people, especially if they do so with unkind tones. Since I believe the performers (and the companies who hired them) are actually misguided, I want them to be loved and led to a better way, which is challenging for them to do if the ones who know a better way don't sound loving.
Yet, I also want to advocate for our children. I want to be a voice of truth and reason that says that our children deserve better.
I have a longing in my soul that our sons and daughters could grow up without being inundated with sexual conversation and images everywhere they turn. I long for a society where organizations feel an obligation to our children, to offer family-friendly entertainment because our children deserve to see showcased people who deserve to be heroes for so many more reasons than their sexuality.
It would be refreshing if the adults of our society decided to leave sex in the bedroom and sexual conversations for times of discernment where children are not present.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if our nation's families could watch the biggest national family event of the year without worrying about the content of what's on center stage?
This is what I'm wrestling with - do I speak up for the children and the future of our society or do I remain silent so that the Christian community is not viewed as hateful?? This dilemma will lead one Christian voice to stand for the children and another Christian voice to whisper lovingly to the lost. Both voices have merit. And I will pray for the effectiveness of both of those voices as I pray for all the rest of us to humbly, passionately, intentionally wrestle with these issues.
At the very least, can't our hearts all wrestle with these things? Have we become so callous and complacent to the bombardment of a hyper-sexualized society that we no longer wrestle? And by "wrestle" I really mean pray earnestly for direction from a God who loves the children and the lost just the same.
Let's all pray for wisdom, grace, love, and discernment, and conviction to be a nation of people who seek the best for each other’s good, even if it is inconvenient or requires sacrifice. May we not be caught up in cheap gratification that degrades one of the most sacred gifts that God gave to humankind. Let us always strive to do what is good for society. Not to be people who throw in the towel on morality and say, “Well, this is just where we are now. We need to accept it.” No, I hope we will always be a people who say, “We can do better,” and then pivot to a better position, and begin to do better.
Val Harrison, The Practically Speaking MOM, is an author, event speaker, podcaster, blogger, and mom of seven. Her ministry exists to encourage and equip intentional moms to build strong families. She wants moms to know that your family, even with all of it's unique personalities, imperfections and scars, is God's masterpiece in the making. He designed your family and appointed you as mother to your tribe! God is doing exceedingly abundantly more than you could ask or imagine in your family through his power that is already at work within you.
