Welcome...

Welcome! Come on in! Make yourself at home and stay awhile. But beware of the odd flying toy, fighting child, dirty sock, or even a mad Mama. If you are looking to read about about a perfect family, this is NOT it. But if you want a real snapshot of day to day life in the deRegt household, you might just find that here. My desire through this blog is to keep in "real" touch with family and friends, beyond the picture-perfect Christmas form letter (hey, what can I say? I believe in wearing your heart on your sleeve). We consider ourselves blessed that there are so many wonderful people in our lives that we can't even keep in touch with everyone. Please leave a comment now and then, we'd love to hear from you, too. Except if you are perfect, then we want you to go away!!



Tuesday 16 October 2012

"Mom, what does SEXY mean?"

I hear him through the bathroom door. First, he asked his Dad. "What is sexy, Dad?"

Dad, ever clever, responded quickly:"Your Mom is, of course!"

"No, really, Dad, what does it mean?" Well, um...well. After some awkward humming and hawing and I-dont-want-to-go-there-yet-with-you and maybe-you-should-ask-your-mother, the son opens the unlocked bathroom door and walks right in, oblivious to me in all my glory, and poses the same question. (Dad on the other side of the door still thinks he's being funny when he calls out "you're looking at it, son!") Nice. Aren't I blessed?

Pause that story right there and fast-forward to later in the week when I am standing patiently in line to pay for my overflowing grocery cart. As usual I look longingly at the magazines, wondering which food we could forsake this week so that one of these delightful publications can fit into the grocery budget.

And there's this headline: "SEXIEST pumpkin pie ever!"

Really? I mean, really? Isn't pumpkin pie exactly what causes us all to NOT look like the models on the front of these magazines, prompting us to feel downright un-sexy??

But there it was--sexy pumpkin pie. The sexiest ever. So I guess there are somewhat sexy pies and then there are really sexy pies. I guess this one takes the sexy-pie cake, pardon the pun.

Back to my son in the bathroom and me hastily wrapping a towel around myself.

"Well," I say, stalling, "why do you want to know?" Eyes narrowing. "Where did you hear that word, anyways?"

"So-and-so at school uses it all the time." Ahhh, ok. "And I read it." Yup, welcome to the scary world of reading.

I debated how to answer it, and finally said it was just kind of an adult word for saying something looks really good, and that he should probably not say it too often.

The official definition is: arousing or intending to arouse sexual desire. So, in that light, I'd say he definitely shouldn't be using it to often!! But a third, new definition is: appealing because of being new, interesting, or trendy.

We took our kids to the fair this summer and a man walking in front of us had in large letters on his shirt "I want your sexy mama". Thank goodness the kids didn't get a read of that one. I wonder what his own toddler (he had two in tow) will think when he learns to read.

At the risk of sounding like an old-fashioned prude, I have to ask "What is our world coming to?" Why does everything have to be about either a) sexual desire or b) death (skulls and skeletons everywhere, need I say more?).

When I saw that magazine about the pumpkin pie, I was disheartened. How do we equip our kids in this generation to make wise choices when even pumpkin pie has expectations on it to be sexy? Everything around us seems to scream "focus on your own pleasure!!"

But God says "take heart, I have overcome the world" and "delight yourself in the Lord, and he will satisfy the desires of your heart," and I know that, but do I live that? Do I model that?

In a world of magazine covers and billboards and tv commercials that shout, yes shout, not just suggest, wrong messages, I am convinced once again that my role as the mother, the homemaker, the "primary influencer" is so crucial. It starts here. With me. Immersed in Truth.

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her...Charm is deceptive and beauty if fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:27-30.

A tall order. Yet, curiously, not as daunting as creating the sexiest pumpkin pie ever while still fitting into the sexiest skinny jeans ever...Truth.


1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete