Knickers in a Knot

I'm sure that by now you have heard about the new line of Victoria's Secret for preteens, "Bright Young Things". A lot of parents are pretty fired up about it. And I get it. I'm tired of living in a culture that tells me that I'm fat. I'm tired of it telling me that I'm not worth something unless I'm hot, sexy and have a man in my life. I am an independent woman and it makes me sad that Victoria's Secret is preying on every preteen girl's insecurities of self image.

But is Victoria's Secret really the problem?

I've been reading a lot of blog posts about this new lingerie line. Most of them written by outraged parents and homeschoolers. And I mean no disrespect to the fired up cyber moms out there, but they're kind of missing the point. You can blame VS all you want but the truth of the matter is that Victoria's Secret is a company trying to make money. They aren't the problem. They're just cashing in on the problem. Or girls already have body image issues. Thanks to the entertainment and fashion worlds us girls are faced with stick thin models with Barbie like proportions. There are sixteen year olds playing thirteen year olds on tv and they are portrayed as sexually active. Our girls are told that you need to show a little zazazing in order to get the bling bling ring. It's our fallen culture not some woman's intimates store that is to blame for this.

And think on this: what kind of message are we sending to the world by getting our panties in a wad over this? We fly off the handle so easily at the slightest provocation! Why aren't we writing to companies like ABC Family about how they are influencing our girls? I mean if we're going to start complaining, we might as well complain to every company that is sending our kids a bad message. And while we're at it, why not pull our kids out of school so that they aren't influenced by their peers' bad values (no of fence to the homeschoolers out there. I'm not aiming this at you in particular. I'm just trying to make a point). In fact lets cut our kids off from the world in general so that they aren't influenced by the images of our culture!

This is the world we live in people. We can't overreact to protect our children. Yes it's sad but that's what happens when we reject God. Our culture has walked away from God and become filled with everything that is not of Him. The over sexualizing of women is just one part of a bigger, sadder picture entitled sin. So how's about we stop trying to fix the symptoms and focus on the problem. Let's focus on the people, not the panty stores. Disciple our children and train them up in the right way so that they don't feel the need to wear undies that say "Call Me".

Shake us up, Lord!