Here's the thing, Courtney. I will agree with you that there are certainly creepy men who have made lives difficult for women because they can. One day that shocked me once was a story my mother told me when we were much older. My mother, a career school teacher and a deep woman of faith, and not a feminist, ideologically speaking. She married the same man, my father, and loved him, and him, her, their whole lives. I saw before me the classic example of a Christian couple who love each other with Godly love, and love the Lord more. It made all the difference and so many people came and told me this when they passed.
But, my mother did have a distant memory of a neighborhood man assaulting her when she was a young teenage girl. And a creepy radio personality that tried to take advantage of her when she was a college student training to be a teacher. However, she never let such indict in her mind "all men." Because it was not true of all men.
As a man, I've seen examples around me of men who were less than gentlemen regarding women. This is true. BUT...I've also seen women who had their own versions. Ways they would use their power as women, and society's willingness to defer to their concerns, as weapons against men they felt had wronged them, real or imagined. They don't want men to feel protective towards them...until they want protection from something. And they talk about equality, until it comes to the dirty, uncomfortable, dangerous aspects of life that are low prestige.
God made men and women equal in esteem to Him. But not equal in ability or inclinations. Not superior or inferior, but complementary. There are things men are more suited for than women and vice versa. And, shock of shocks, we are drawn to each other in various ways. The problem is is when we do not put certain self-imposed boundaries around those attractions and recognize there is a time and place.
And nothing good comes when we begin to see each other as the "enemy" or not want to grant each other spaces exclusive from the other.
It is not that women are souless heart-tearing harpies, or that men are barbaric savages. People suck. Especially when Jesus Christ is excluded from the mix. Man is fallen.
Here's the thing, Courtney. I will agree with you that there are certainly creepy men who have made lives difficult for women because they can. One day that shocked me once was a story my mother told me when we were much older. My mother, a career school teacher and a deep woman of faith, and not a feminist, ideologically speaking. She married the same man, my father, and loved him, and him, her, their whole lives. I saw before me the classic example of a Christian couple who love each other with Godly love, and love the Lord more. It made all the difference and so many people came and told me this when they passed.
But, my mother did have a distant memory of a neighborhood man assaulting her when she was a young teenage girl. And a creepy radio personality that tried to take advantage of her when she was a college student training to be a teacher. However, she never let such indict in her mind "all men." Because it was not true of all men.
As a man, I've seen examples around me of men who were less than gentlemen regarding women. This is true. BUT...I've also seen women who had their own versions. Ways they would use their power as women, and society's willingness to defer to their concerns, as weapons against men they felt had wronged them, real or imagined. They don't want men to feel protective towards them...until they want protection from something. And they talk about equality, until it comes to the dirty, uncomfortable, dangerous aspects of life that are low prestige.
God made men and women equal in esteem to Him. But not equal in ability or inclinations. Not superior or inferior, but complementary. There are things men are more suited for than women and vice versa. And, shock of shocks, we are drawn to each other in various ways. The problem is is when we do not put certain self-imposed boundaries around those attractions and recognize there is a time and place.
And nothing good comes when we begin to see each other as the "enemy" or not want to grant each other spaces exclusive from the other.
It is not that women are souless heart-tearing harpies, or that men are barbaric savages. People suck. Especially when Jesus Christ is excluded from the mix. Man is fallen.
But it does not have to be that way.
I know I personally seek better.
Prayers,
JS