Monday, July 24, 2006

refocusing

I'll need to be careful how I say this, but try and follow me.

I've been too soft on this. Too timid to speak any louder than I have. And so I've hardly spoken for a while. Though, I know I'll have to be more careful not to go too far the other way.

I've said that I'm not demanding a change from every last woman of the Church. I want it to be clear that I am however, urgently requesting that change. Men all over are stumbling into lust and are fighting for their lives to get out of it.

And please don't think of me as some distant prude behind a digital pulpit. I have been one of those men who feast on women with their eyes. and (by the Strength/Grace of God) I have learned to reverse those habits.

But the temptation is always there, and I'm still human. Put simply, it's a daily struggle not to become that man again. I'm writing on behalf of all such men who are also engaged in this battle and want to be able let their guard down when they come before God on Sunday morning.

I'm asking you, the ladies of the church, to take a closer look at the sheer power of your beauty and to help us men by shielding us from it. (I'm not asking you to dress down in the least. Mandatory potato sacks are the last thing I have in mind).

I've also got to make it clear that I'm only talking to women within the church. None of this is by any means a basic requirement for Christianity, and I refuse to allow it to be mistaken as such. If you don't consider yourself to be part of the Family of Christ, you are not my target audience. (You're welcome here, but please know that you are not under fire, and defending yourself will just make you look silly. Though, if you don't like the idea of men ignoring your personality because they're distracted by your body, I encourage you to stick around anyway.)

Fair warning: I'll be doing my best to avoid going into graphic detail, but that won't always be possible. When a man starts giving in to the desire admire a midriff or glance down a low cut blouse, it only satisfies for a moment. Before long it only creates a hunger for more.

Again, I'm not blaming your Sunday Best for luring us to dark corners of the internet. But if any other man's story is anything like mine, those small compromises of just-a-few-more-inches-of-skin or just-a-little-bit-tighter; as small as they may seem, they remind us of where our journey into lust began.


Oh, that response I promised a while ago? I've started and restarted writing it countless times... but I think God wanted the above out of my system before moving forward. Whatever I've got by the end of the week is getting posted. (I'm also a recovering perfectionist)

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