In A Word......

I've had the day off today and I was so tired from work that for one day I just sat here playing on the computer and watching a few shows on tv that I like.  While watching these shows of course there are commericals and it was while being bombarded with the commericals that it really hit me.

 Oh, it had hit me before, I will admit, but as of late, I have tried to keep myself from the world by regulating what I watch and listen to so such things don't come to mind.    But today as I listened, listened to what America, the world was hearing, I once again became saddened in my heart and even angry with what has become acceptable, and wished I had done a better job of being and example to my children and teaching them properly.  I wish I had not only taught them but sheilded them from the word..... Let me explain.....

The first commerical I saw talked about sexy hair, the next was for jeans and how sexy they made the young woman feel.  After that it was feeling sexy again for the older woman, slimming down to sexiness for the overweight woman, and the final blow, teenagers feeling sexy with makeup and perfume.  I wondered as I heard each of these advertisments if people, especially teenagers, really know what the word sexy means or from whence it is originated, thus I went on a search, and here is what I found. 

I visited several sights where teenagers ask questions and write answers.  I found pages of teens asking what the word "sexy" really means and to my horror but not my surprise I found that 90% of the definitions were  "very attractive, pleasing to the eye, a girl who is stunning, gorgeous, cute, someone who speaks to your soul, beautiful, pretty," and so the list goes.

Actually, what they should know is that the word sexy came from the original word sexful which began to appear about 1905 the definition: engrossed in sex. From there it grew and became sexy and by the 1920's meanings of the word included: concerned predominantly or excessively with sex, sexually interesting or exciting; radiating sexuality, feeling sexual interest; aroused. None of which have anything to do with beautiful, pretty, or cute, and most importanty nothing to do with something that speaks to your soul.   

I fear as the world degrades and worsens so do the lives of our children, and they are forced into lives of living to be sexy not knowing what it really is, what it really means, only knowing what they are taught and what they see.  As I look back I can see how this one little word, did so much damage in my own life and I can also see how it damaged the lives of my children because I was deaf to realness, and trapped in an abyss of politcally correctness that degrades and despises the family, that suffocates true humanity.......

Yes I sound poetic in a sense and even dramatic but the simple fact reamains that the word sexy comes from the word sex, and we all know what sex is; so, do we really want our daughters, and sons,  granddaughters and grandsons; do you really want those of whom we love and chereish to be sexy, to strive to be sexy, to be flooded with the sexiness of the world.  NO I DO NOT!  

Thus my soapbox today is this, we must overcome the seixiness of the world.  Let us ask ourselves when listening to music, picking movies and books, buying clothes and make up for our dear ones, is this something we want for our children, is this something we are willing to teach them because everything we buy for them and allow them to do and hear teaches them.  Remember this, images and words are not easily erased from the mind if ever at all. Think about it......

 But now let us go even a step further, regardless or our age, and ask is this what we want for ourselves?  Do we as adults want the pain of the world upon our sholders, or are we willing to see the light and keep sexy in its proper place, that we too may have peace.  Are we setting the example that will teach our children real beauty and love?  Are we teaching ourselves real beauty and love?  Or do our Facebook posts, TV shows, books, movies, music, dress and the like speak volumes that will in the long run, cause harm and pain.  When we teach ourselves, our children, to strive to be sexy with our choices we set them up, we set ourselves up for pain and heartache. 

I quote from What Does It Mean To Be Sexy? by Raju Peddada 2009

 " US women spend about $7 billion a year, nearly $100 a month, on cosmetics; if saved and invested for five years, it would pay for a full year of tuition and fees at a public college. YWCA-USA chief executive, Dr. Lorraine Cole says: "We believe that the obsession with idealized beauty and body image is a lifelong burden that takes a terrible toll on all young girls and women in this country." Imagine what kind of intellectual fulfillment through travel and learning this money could garner our kids, if it wasn't wasted on something that is utterly ephemeral. While this "investment" on the exterior is consummated, the divested and beautiful mind withers away in feckless platitudes and banality. As a society we have been consumed in the deflowering of our children, the veritable buds of life, by rote exposure to laser hair removal, reality TV and celebrity makeovers, and allowing lipstick and lip gloss for 5 to 8-year-old girls. Forty-four percent of the girls aged 6-9 use lipstick; 36% use hair-care products, and 13% abuse other cosmetics; still these girls feel worse about themselves, as they grow up to become objects of desire instead of being projects for progress..."

(and I believe this now to be as much for boys and men as for girls and women)

I know what your thinking God has given us free agency, kids will make their own choices regardless of what we do.  But let me say to that yes, our children will make there own choices reagardless of what we teach them;  but we, by being the example and choosing the right can give them options for those choices, we give them the chance to choose and understand the good, rather than fall into the ways of the world and hurt.  

I have lived a past life of hurt and pain caused by the word sexy, I know that my children have also lived that past life, I know that my parents lived that life and I see how it has the power to come down through the generations and carry on and on....it is my personal goal to stop it, to stop it now. 

Let us make those choices as we raise our children so that they will have the opportunity to be free of the word sexy, to be free from its side effects.  Let us be an example to others while working and being in the world, so that maybe our choice might help to influence someone for a more excellent way.  And let us not feel quilty about the past but let us make the right choices now for our homes that when our grown children and grandchildren come it will be a safe haven away from the world.

It would be a great and honorable gesture for us all don't you think?  

Thank you for reading my soapbox :)

Love from Dixie!  

The Prophet My Friend......

At the start of this new year, our relief society teachings will be from the sermons and teachings of President Ezra Taft Benson.  And because this is so, I have a prelude to my lesson this month so I hope you will bear with me for this bit of a short story before moving on.

 I am happy to have President Benson's teachings, as with all our prophets he  was a great man indeed, but I also had the great blessing of meeting President Benson at a conference held in Cedar Rapids Iowa.  I was living in Nevada Iowa and had been for some time.  While there I attended the Ames Iowa Ward, for in small areas many towns congregate at one middle local area and so Ames which was about 8 miles from my house, was our ward.

In that year October 11 1987, a special Conference was called for the people of Iowa, in Cedar Rapids.  President Benson had attended college and lived in Ames Iowa, he graduated with his degree from there and  it seems, you see, that he not only had a great love for Iowa but in particular for the Ames ward.    We in the ward who wished to attend had been given tickets and the fire in our hearts was kindled indeed! I, even though I was young in years and in the gospel, knew he was a prophet of the Lord and I wanted to be in his presence and hear him speak and was greatly excited and uplifted. Also in attendance and speaking was James E Faust then of the Quorum of the twelve, whom I did not know at that time due to my not keeping up well, but since then has become a beacon to me and I love him dearly.....

I can very well understand why President Benson loved them so much, those of the Ames ward, as I  a young 18 year old mother, coming from Texas, had been welcomed into their family as if I was born in, I had been there two years when this event happened and as I think of them now, all that they did for me, and how they carried me as a young woman without a strong testimony or understanding, I feel a great love for these people and I will forever love them and think of them.  Which is why I can understand why, at the end of his speaking, that President Benson would tell of his love for this special ward and this special people and ask for them them, only the Ames Iowa Ward, to come forward to him that he could look upon them and shake each person's hand.

 I must say, there was almost a gasp among us, that we could be so blessed.  I was of the first few in line, and to look upon this man, I can say he glowed. There was a presence about him that I cannot explain and it was not my innocence that made it so, it was him, I had never seen anything like this before and I just didn't see it, I felt it.  I held my daughter in my arms as I waited in line, she was was two, but very mature, (she attended kindergarten at the age of three) and she reached out her hand and smiles immediately to him with all the trust as if she had known him forever.  He smiled wide looking upon her and took her little hand into both of his and she loved him.....I know those are strong words but if you could have seen what I saw, she loved him.....its all I can say.  He then looked to me and took my had with great smiles of joy and asked my name and we spoke only briefly.  But the scene, the scene reminded me of that in the book of Mormon, when Christ appeared to the Nephites and they came with awe and wonder and looked upon him and touched him....it was a scene like that indeed......though none of us put him in the place of Christ, make no mistake, yet we saw that Christ shinned through him, he had a connection like none other, and it was seen with the natural eyes...

I left that conference strengthened and new in many ways, and though many tragic things would happen to me shortly after this (the death of my daughter)  the words of this man never left me.  What do I remember most of what he said?  I can honestly and truly say in all the years since I have never forgotten his words, in the worst times of my life and in the best it has echoed through my mind.  " The book of Mormon contains the words of Christ its great mission is to bring men to Christ"  President Benson urged with greatness, almost like a pleading, that we read this book, and not just once but over and over through out our lives that we learn all that Christ has to teach us.

On a personal note, it is the Book of Mormon that brought me back. Those echoing words of President Benson came at times, when I needed them most. In addition to the Bible it continues to teach me that loving Christ is not a religion it is a choice, it is a way of life.....

You may call me crazy but, over the years at the truly darkest time in my life, (when my son died as a victim of suicide)  I dreamed of President Benson.  I saw him very clearly and heard him speak to me. The things he said pertained particular to the episodes of my life, my heart and mind. It was great leadership and guidence to what I needed and I remember that dream and advice almost on a daily basis and try to live my life accordingly.  At the time of the dream, I hadn't thought of that meeting with him in years, nor thought to remember it for so much was happening, so why would I dream of him in that way and I've never dreamed of him since it was only one time but I remember it as if yesterday........

I've been told before by some who are "learned" that the dreams are just the mind that Christ and the great ones don't come for little people such as me.....but I know different, I truly do and for me I will ever believe in the connection of souls.  My daughter died at the age of three and lives in the celestial kingdom, where President Benson lives and they knew each other in a sense from here, I like to believe he came to help me when I needed it most, and he truly did for I  became a new woman during that time....and he is right, though the trails come and pour upon, I am happy and full of joy this day for I truly feel the love of Christ...thus, I consider this prophet....my friend......