Got Fruit ?

Yesterday, I mentioned that I recently completed reading the novel Deadline by Randy Alcorn.  Below is an excerpt from the novel which I found myself identifying with, unlike the character Jake Woods who has was coming from the side of skeptic, I was already a believer though it was hardly noticeable by the life I led.

Deadline

A few evenings a week Jake was home reading Finney’s books Sue had given him.  He’d underline and scratch questions in the margins.  It wasn’t only interesting, it was surprisingly fun.  He began to realize how much he’d neglected his intellect feeding on television, videos, newspapers, magazines, and trivial fiction.  His mind had stagnated, become cluttered with trivia and politically correct buzzwords that substituted for thought.  For the first time in years, maybe decades, his mind was being stretched.  It felt good.

And Saint Paul the Apostle says in the book of Romans…

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Grace and peace be with you

As I was waiting in the barbershop for my turn for a haircut this weekend, I sat and browsed the magazine selection to pass the time. After picking through a few magazines of the hunter persuasion, I picked up an old Time magazine and began to thumb through it, actually looking for something picturesque to catch my eye more than something to stimulate my noggin.

After a few minutes of thumbing through the pages I found an August, 2009  article by Bruce Crumley that caught my attention.  The short version of the article is Crumley’s look into the trend by young French women (18-24) to avoid topless sunbathing in public.  Aside from a concern over skin cancer, it’s noted that another concern is actually one of modesty.   The young women were saying that they considered themselves to have conservative values, and that public display of their “attributes” clashed with their “prudish" values.

I found this to be an interesting contrast to my perceptions of the 18-24 year old generation in the US; it being assumed that as a whole modesty isn’t a value that registers amongst the masses.  I’m going to lay some of the blame on MTV Spring Break, and late night Girls Gone Wild “infomercials” for forming this view. 

What I’m wondering after having read the TIME article is this…  “Is the shift in values amongst this younger generation of French women related to secular ideas such as not sexually objectifying themselves or is there a correlation with spiritual influence?”.  In the American culture, personal perception says that it appears easier to pin validity of the assumption that less modesty mirrors little to no guidance by way of Godly principles.

Genesis 3:8-11
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

File under: “Thinking out loud”

Grace and peace be with you.