Psalm One Thirty Nine

To the Brotherhood:

“…Then I met the Perfect One, and He changed my life. He changed what I thought about myself. He showed me I was worth more than my body’s value. He showed me I was worth dying for; that I could be loved like that. It took me a long time to believe that. To believe that I could be a real woman. To believe that I was worthy of a love so real.

And when I put my Bible down and looked out my window, I tried to find a man after His heart; I saw it then. I saw the temptations that dance in front of you every day. I saw the industry that strives every day to steal your heart and mind. I saw those who had given up trying. I saw the women, the advertisements, the assaults on your own worth. I saw it. And it broke my heart. I hope you know that I see it, I get it, and while I can’t fix it all, I will do my best to fix what is in my control.

You were made for more, and I hope you know that. I hope you know that you have a calling to a love that could change the world. I know you are drawn to beauty. God, in all His wisdom, made you that way. But I hope you know that beauty is more than a body’s value and that the most beautiful are the ones who don’t display it.

We are both learning. We are all learning. We are trying to follow the heart of God in a world that despises that heart. We are trying to take a stand for a truth that the world continually mocks. We are under constant assault, and I know because I am too. They keep telling me to change my values, to lower my standards, to just give in and join the crowd, but I don’t want to join the crowd. There is no life in the crowd. I’ve stood at the corner of the crowd and know the emptiness and loneliness of standing there. I don’t want to be there, but they tell me that outside of that, there is no hope.

I keep hoping they are wrong. I keep trying to find men who believe in the value of women, who truly cherish a woman and not just her body. I need you to stand. I need you to be strong. For the sake of my own life, I need to find them. I need to know that these men exist and that I don’t have to be like that. For my sake, I need you to prove them wrong.

On behalf of countless sisters in Christ, consider this your dragon. Be a man. Stand strong, and don’t lose courage. Fight as the knights of old. Pursue and conquer and triumph. Come and rescue us.”

-- Excerpt from Jillian Harris