Friday night, when I was finally crawling into bed at about 3:30 in the morning, I could hear voices outside my window--drunk voices. I peaked out my blinds and spotted three young men and a young woman walking across the street from my home. Their conversation, which I could hear clearly through my open window, was disturbing and off color.
I felt nauseous, sad, and frustrated.
It made me sad about the women who are stuck. About the women who hate themselves. About the women who are raped. About the women who feel worthless. About the women stuck in poverty. About the women in abusive relationships. About the women who starve themselves. About the women who think they deserve no better. About the women who are denied opportunities because of their gender.
It made me wonder what I should do.
3 comments:
Sherry,
Thanks for sharing this with us. This is something that is on my mind often (even more so since being blessed with two amazing daughters).
I often wonder what I should do as well. Here are some of my ideas:
-- adopt a girl from one of the places young orphan girls are most at risk (they are at risk everywhere though).
-- challenge men and boys in a general way: challenge them to have character, to clean their minds of the filth so prevalent today, to respect and not objectify women (the mind cleaning thing will be essential here), and to treat their wife and daughters with love and service.
-- challenge men and boys in a specific way whenever I see or hear someone degrading or hurting a woman.
-- Love and train my girls in such a way that I help them become secure and confident women.
Fathers of girls should buy and read Meg Meeker's "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know."
Thanks for your ideas, Mark. I'm glad I'm not the only one haunted by this culture.
Oh yeah, it is haunting. Every time I go to the mall (not often) I get a little more concerned about raising girls in such an upside down world, and ache a little more for all the teenage girls who don't seem to have any direction.
I am sure your affirmation and care is making a huge difference for a lot of teenage girls every year.
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