This past week, I commented on What I Want, a post at There Is No Wealth But Life about expectations and parenting. The post began, “When I say that I do not want to be a stay at home mother, it is because I want something else…” and it drew me in.
At the end of her post, Rae (Twitter @nowealthbutlife ) asked, “What do you want? If you are already a parent, how has reality changed your plans and dreams?”
Rae asked if she may use the comment as a guest post.
I said yes.
An excerpt:
I found out I was pregnant in the midst of big deadlines at work at the bank. I didn’t even tell my husband I had bought the test. Why should I? It would be negative anyway.
I took it after work, still wearing my snappy navy dress suit and classic leather heels.
My expensive woolen executive armor didn’t shield me from the truth in the urine.
You can find the rest of the guest post as well as Rae’s thought-provoking blog here.
This weekend, we had a lovely brunch together. Everyone helped to make Banana Nutella Cr̻pes. While we worked, in true homeschooler fashion, we talked about Henry Ford, assembly lines and efficiency. We also passed around the Cthulhu Cr̻pe Monster Рthe result of the last slosh of batter in the pan that seemed to take on a personality of its own.
Next time you think what you’re doing isn’t a that big of a deal, consider that Adam and Eve’s sin was eating fruit.
It hit me pretty hard today that, what I thought was being gracious by overlooking small offenses, was seriously enabling sinful behavior in our home. In fact, because I’ve let the little things slide, I now have quite a mess on my hands.
It’s easy to rationalize that some sins are just little boo-boos, but the reality is that sneaking video games when you’ve been told not to play them during school time is just as damning in God’s eyes as murdering someone. The earthly consequences are drastically different, but the eternal consequences are morbidly the same. My habit of overlooking has been misleading my children to think otherwise.
The more I thought about it, I realized that the sin of all sins, the one that cursed us humans, was, by our standards, seemingly benign and easily rationalized. God didn’t mandate, “Whatever you do, don’t build a spaceship!” Instead, He made a rule that was easy to break. Adam and Eve were told not to eat fruit! (Genesis 2:15-17)
Therefore, it is pretty much impossible for us to say, “It’s not fair! My my sin wasn’t as bad as Adam’s and Eve’s!” By the smallest of sins being the worst of sins, no one can ever say that they are without sin. (Romans 5:12-20 ; 1 John 1:5-10)
I am humbled, thankful, and, regarding my tiny little parenting boo-boo, stand quite corrected.
Mommy-blogosphere is a twitter today with the release of Miley Cyrus’ new music video, “Can’t Be Tamed”.
In it, Cyrus looks like a raven who forgot to get dressed for the day. (Do ravens even wear pants?) She sings about her intentions while dancing on the poles of her birdcage.
Many parents have daughters who have grown up with Cyrus’ alter-ego, Hannah Montana. Perplexed over how to explain this change to their daughters, they are afraid they may have to tell them that they are no longer permitted to listen to their beloved singer because she is not who she used to be.
“Writhing in a large nest within a giant birdcage, the 17-year-old pop star, wearing S&M-style gear, looks provocatively at the camera complaining that she feels like a specimen.
She proceeds to engage in some raunchy pole dancing, her plunging body-hugging black bodice, complete with expansive bird wings (the curator in the video says she is a member of the extinct species Avian Cyrus), leaving little to the imagination.”
The article is accompanied by this poll:
“Do you think Miley Cyrus’ new video is too saucy for a 17-year-old?
Yes, where are her parents?!
No, she’s almost an adult.
Who’s Hannah Montana?
The emphasized concern, of course, is that feathered Cyrus is not legally an adult.
As a millionaire who makes her own decisions about most of her life, however, she is essentially living as an adult, proving that Americans still hold age as a standard for maturity vs. self-reliance or life experience.
It is an especially interesting double standard, given that many Americans are at peace with sending 18 year old men off to war. Teens shooting “bad guys” in the head is okay, but it is shocking when Cyrus wears a black corset that provides more coverage than most women wear at the beach.
Frankly, Cyrus’ video portrays exactly the kind of behavior I’d expect from a woman struggling to handle the massive amount of attention from strange men in her life. She is trying express her own sexuality, but is attempting (poorly) to tell them they can’t touch her unless it is on her terms.
It’s easy to do our part by clicking on,”Where are her parents?” to vote our outrage. How often, though, with our own children do we discuss sex? This video is just one more example of why we must discuss it with our daughters, while they are still young. Should we allow just any man to touch us? How does Cyrus’ message mesh with her actions? Are her words consistent with her suggestive behavior? Why do we wear modest swimsuits, anyway?
When we think that people under 21 (yes, even Christians) do not have sexual desires, we kid ourselves. Realistically, it is parents who are embarrassed to talk to anyone younger than 21 about sex. Kids talk about sex all the time, at the level that they understand. Even young children know something’s going on between their parents, which is why they get flustered when their parents are kissing or holding hands in public. They have a feeling that it is somehow connected to things private.
The truth is, “Should a 17 year old express sexual feelings?” is the wrong question to be asking. Instead, we need to broaden our perspective and ask, “What should people, including adults and teens, do with sexual feelings?”
For starters, sex is a good thing; a gift from God.
However, it is for people who are married.
Instead of pretending sexuality and birdcages don’t exist, parents who have seen Cyrus’ new video have an opportunity to talk to their children about it in the context of thinking critically about everything they do.
From the food we eat to the entertainment we buy, we need to constantly be challenging ourselves and our children to check our hearts and actions against the true standard, God’s Holy Word.
