Tune Out

Tonight dark living rooms all across America will be lit up with the glow of the television as men, women, and even families tune in to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.   The show is a  glittery, jeweled, star-studded extravaganza that features beautiful young women strutting up and down the runway in underwear.

As all of America makes the show a priority tonight, I want to appeal to Christians to turn off their TVs and find something better to do with their time.

Men, it is impossible for you to honor God or your wife while watching this program.   You will be feasting your eyes on the young, near perfect bodies of women who have not committed themselves to you, have not borne your children, and who have not seen you at your worst or helped you be your best.  Your wife is dishonored when you lust after other women.  If you’re not married, you’re not off the hook.  The Bible calls us to think on what is right, noble, pure, and lovely, and it clearly condemns lusting after a woman who doesn’t belong to you.  In fact,  Matthew 5:28 tells us that any man who looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart.

Women, we are blessed to be married to amazing, committed, wonderful Christian men.  They want to be pure in thought and in heart.  We of all people should be diligent to help them guard their hearts and minds against lustful thoughts.  If we turn the program on, or if we give them our approval as they watch, we are aiding them in engaging in sin.   Men today are bombarded by these images on a day to day basis, and what we bring into our homes (by way of movies, television programs, magazines) can really help or hurt them as they try to maintain a pure mind.

Ladies, when we watch the program we sell ourselves short by comparing ourselves to the women on the screen and expecting near perfection from ourselves without plastic surgery, an extremely young body, or a huge team of trainers, makeup artists, hair stylists, and fashion experts.  We expect a pre-baby body from our post-babies selves.  We are hurt when our husbands enjoy looking at the near-naked women on screen, and we lose sight of what true beauty is.

Parents, Justin Beiber (along with Rihanna and Bruno Mars) will be performing on the program tonight.  It’s no coincidence that Victoria’s Secret is using one of the biggest idols of pre-teens and teenagers in our country today.  They are banking on us allowing our children to watch the program to see their favorite singers.  They are expecting young teens to get the message that Victoria’s Secret is a brand that stands for everything beautiful that they want to become.  They are building a new generation of customer.  The sad thing is that when these young women watch the program, they will get a warped sense of what is beautiful.  They will forget that they are fearfully and wonderfully made, and they will hate even more what they have already learned to despise about their physical appearance, as they compare themselves to an impossible standard of physical beauty.  And they will lose sight of the fact that God sees the heart.

Our sons will struggle just as our husbands do.  Even if that is hard for us to believe.

Let’s have dinner with our families.  Let’s turn off the TV.  Our families will be stronger for it, and God will be honored.