Pastor's Ponderings, December 18, 2017

Do To Others Like You Want Others To Do To You

As a father of three young ladies and as a pastor, the subject of sexual assault of women is especially painful.  Rachel Simmons, Author and Co-Founder of Girls Leadership, wrote an article in the December 15, 2017, issue of Huffington Post entitled, “When Middle Schoolers Say #MeToo.”  The disturbing article said, “To be sexually harassed as a girl is to learn a lesson as old as time, one that is unlikely to be displaced by well-intentioned girl-power computer science classes and soccer drills: A girl’s most important source of value is her body and how others look at it. Known as self-objectification, the trait shows up in girls as young as 11, and is linked to depression, poor academic performance, social problems and eating disorders.”

The twisted message that our society has pushed on women is ungodly and wicked. All of us are fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image (Psalm 139:14, Genesis 1:27).  Our God personally put us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) and He does not make us to be assaulted, hurt, and bullied by others.

Over the last months, we have seen great men fall from high status because of their horrible behavior towards women.  Lizzie Crocker in a December 17, 2017 article in the Daily Beast wrote, “It made many men reflect on whether they’d been complicit enablers of sexual misconduct, or offenders themselves. And it led to a collective reckoning with systemic sexism in our culture.”

Why? The Bible says to train up a child the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). It seems that while children ought to obey their parents (Ephesians 6:1), it seems some parents for various reasons have not been able to effectively train children to be respectful men and women.  Naturally, we would like to emphasize to the world that our children did not learn that behavior from us. We may take credit when our children do well as adults, but not take responsibility when they do wrong.

Let us who love the Lord endeavor to pray for our male children and instruct them that their masculinity does not lie in hurting our female children. Let us pray that the females of our society do not self objectify themselves so that they do not accomplish the purposes of God in their lives and that their standard is Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith.  We must all remember that we should not harass, shame, or assault one and another because we must do unto others as we would have others do to us (Matthew 7:12).

Psalm 139:14
New International Version (NIV)

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Genesis 1:27
New International Version

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them

Psalm 139:13
New International Version

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb

Proverbs 22:6
New International Version (NIV)

6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Ephesians 6:1
New International Version (NIV)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Matthew 7:12
New International Version

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets