Got Something To Say?
Britney’s little sister is pregnant; and it is CNN front page news. Do you have something to say about Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy? I’ll tell you, I sure did… but it was short-lived. Let me tell you why..
First, when someone comes to me with a problem in their life, I always ask them to stop looking out the window for the problem, and first look into the mirror for the problem. We can only change ourselves, and there are plenty of issues right there to deal with. I looked into the mirror and saw a man that was willing to pick the speck out of another’s eye, while ignoring the 2×4 in his own. I saw a man who – like the rest of society – was dazzled by bright and shiny things put forth by the media that are – almost assuredly – designed to make us stop looking in the mirror at our own issues. Why is reality TV and “bad news” so interesting? Because it fools us into thinking, “I am not like that person, so I am ok”. This is the very attitude that Christ condemned when speaking about the Pharisees. It was time to examine myself and why I had strong opinions on someone else’s sin.
Second, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is just fate that has us toiling away in relative obscurity – with all the sins of Jamie Lynn and more – quietly and behind the scenes, with no cameras to capture our every fault. I guarantee you, if I had a camera watching me during every moment from the age of 8 or 9 on, I couldn’t show my face in public now! Isn’t it wonderful that we can hide our sin while we snipe at another’s? Makes you feel great that you don’t have “that” sin, doesn’t it? Or maybe you do/did, but you pick at Lynn Spears (their mother) for poor parenting, without knowing how – ultimately – your own children will turn out? We have all the sins others have, and frankly, if you really really hate Jamie Lynn, you must not be too far from her, because it takes similarity to breed proper hate. You cannot hate something you don’t personally understand.
Finally, I ask all of us, “Where is the man”!? Where is the 19 year-old male who has been having sex with a 16 year-old and committing (at least) a misdemeanor while doing so? Where is the father who was to teach Jamie what a good man looks like and how to demand more out of a man than a house and sexual activity? Am I raising my daughters in such a way that they will select a good man – from the precious few that there are – and will have an “order” to courting, marriage, child-creating, and child-raising? Am I raising my son to be a man that will cast aside his need for quick sexual release – as strong as that need can be – for his beloved as they court and marry? Am I raising my son to resist the sin of apathy and inaction; Adam’s sin in the garden? Am I fostering in him the desire and instinct to protect, rather than take advantage of; and to love unselfishly, rather than take what he can get?
To all of you who took up stones to cast at J.L.S., please drop them and go home. There’s nothing to see here; nothing that is, that you cannot already see in your ordinary home mirror. That is all..
