INSPIRASUNS

I didn’t write a little blog yesterday. To be honest, I don’t think it would have been a good thing to do. You see, I was upset. I was angry, sad, disgusted, and several other adjectives I can think of. When I woke up yesterday, those feelings were still strong, and I thought it best to not sit down and write.

I prayed a lot yesterday morning, and during the day. I asked Father to not only remove the intense feelings I had, but to help us, the United States, to find our way back to Him. We have drifted far from Him, and that is not a good thing.

As we will remind ourselves much over the coming week, this country was founded on the belief and faith in God our Father. Our Founding Fathers frequently went to the Bible as the foundation for much of our founding documents.

Sunday evening, my husband and I went to the beach to watch the sunset. We went to a beach that we don’t normally go to because it’s usually overly crowded with tourists. Sunday night was no different, ugh, we thought. We only had 15 minutes or so before the sun set, so we found a slightly less crowded spot and set our chairs down.

We began to look around at all the people. There was a young family with a little girl, I’m guessing maybe 3 years old, and a little guy, probably 8 months or so. The kids were playing in the sand while mom and dad were getting pictures of them. There was another family with several young boys, I’m guessing ages 6 to 9. They were playing soccer, and doing an amazing job of it, I might add. There were other people, sitting in chairs, coming from dinner, taking pictures, and watching the water.

Then I started to look around and noticed large groups of people who had obviously been at the beach all day. They had glass liquor bottles (which aren’t allowed), trash around their tents, music playing really loud, and they were yelling over the music. The women were dressed in thong swimsuits, showing, as you can imagine, way more than should be shown anywhere in public, especially on a public beach. And…did I mention that they had young children in their group?

I look in the other direction and see several other groups, again with young girls, early 20’s I’d say, in more of the extremely revealing swimsuits. One of the girls was posing for pictures, showing her rear towards the camera on purpose.

I was angry at first. Then I was sad, very sad. What are these people thinking? They are on a public beach, with young children all around. I thought about the little girl with the young family, playing in the sand. How do you explain to her why these women are showing their backsides in public? How do you explain to the young boys playing soccer that it’s not right to look at the women who are showing more of themselves than they should?

This is not about the color of skin, language spoken, or any other differentiator you can name. This is about morality and respect, self-respect and respect for others.

What happened to our society that it is accepted to have women, and men for that matter, dress in a way that they look like they stepped onto the runway of a strip club, at a public beach? It’s not just the beach; we see it every single day in the grocery store, walking down the street, in the airports, all manner of public places. Where is the respect for our bodies and respect for others?

I guess some would say I’m a prude. I don’t believe so. I believe in respect and morality. Our young children deserve an environment that doesn’t include sexuality at every turn. Our children deserve to be able to experience the innocence of being a child. They deserve to be guided, nurtured, and protected from the ugliness that satan is putting on display.

I’ve been praying quite a bit to Father over the past few days. I will continue to ask that he speak to the heart of His children. I will continue to ask Him to help heal this nation and to bring us back to the feet of our Lord, that we may find forgiveness and strength to be better.

Friends, our children deserve better. Our Lord deserves better. I believe He shed a tear Sunday night at what He saw. I know I did.

Heavenly Father, please speak to the hearts of Your children. Turn us back to You. Destroy the bonds of satan, and guide Your children to right actions. Fill us with Your grace and love, help us to respect the dignity of human life, and respect our neighbors as ourselves. Guide us to be better today than we were yesterday. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Acts 17:30
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.