I need to vent...

There are very few things in my life that really get me riled up. I mean, seriously angry. However, I saw something on our way to church yesterday that literally made me want to vandalize the place: a new coffee shop called "Playmates Coffee"... you know, the kind that is apparently the new rage in our society where the baristas where lingerie or even less. Now people, this is the THIRD one that has gone up in Yakima within the last year and it makes me want to vomit. As if it isn't already hard enough to be a woman in our society and constantly be fighting the very unrealistic idea of women that our society idealizes, we now can't even get a cup of coffee without being bombarded by sex. More importantly, our husbands and sons can't even get a cup of coffee without naked women throwing themselves at them. Ok, they actually CAN avoid this by not going to these places and I am VERY thankful that I have a husband with enough integrity and love for me that he refuses to go, but still...think of all of the men out there who DO visit. Think of what that is doing to their wives, their daughters, and their own idea of what it means to cherish and value a woman. Even as a Christian woman it is hard, at times, to remember that our worth does not lie in what we look like or how sexually attractive we are...and it certainly doesn't help that everywhere you look that seems to be the message our society is sending. I guess Beth Moore's study of Esther could not be coming at a better time in my life...a time when my post-baby body is drastically different than the naked women who are constantly paraded around us. I mean, what woman, no matter how beautiful or self confident, doesn't need a reminder that our worth lies in the Lord and who He has made us....not in what our society seems to think women are good for. And on top of all of this, C.J. and I have a SON who we are trying to raise to be a man who desires God and whose character reflects his love for Jesus. It is SO daunting to think of raising him to properly value, respect, and cherish a woman in the times that he will grow up in. I am just thankful for prayer. Thankful that our God is "able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine." And I'm thankful for the example he has in his Dad.