I found this story from SecondaryVirginity.com amazingly inspirational.
A young couple walked into a jeweler's shop and they noticed that the jeweler was working on pewter. He was purifying the metal to use it for utensils. The couple asked him, "How do you know when it's purified?" The jeweler responded, "When I can see my reflection in it." God's healing wipes away the stain of sin so your past will possess a glorified reflection, His reflection. Healing will turn you into the woman he longs for you to be.
Here's the cool thing: I've been polishing a lot of jewelry recently. Do you know what polishing really is? It's scratches. Millions of tiny scratches. The only way to remove big scratches is to scratch them away with sandpaper, then scratch away those scratches with smaller scratches, and so on until the scratches are so small and so many that they seem beautiful and we call them "polish."
Which is why no jeweler would refer to polished metal as "purified." It's beautiful, but that beauty comes from the long hard road it's been down, not from being new or natural or perfect. To think that the best jewelry would be uncut stones and unrefined ore is to ignore the universe of possibilities that emerge when those materials are worked and designed and when both thought and physical effort has gone into their improvement.
(Also, you should really be examining it under magnification and angular light, not looking for your reflection. Can I just rename this Holly Pervocracy's Amazing Jewelry Blog? I've been doing a very intensive weekend workshop these last few weeks, it's going great, I'm doing some amazing work in silver, it's kind of on my mind lately.)
I could go further with this metaphor, but you know what? You're not like a piece of jewelry anyway. You're like the jeweler, because he's a goddamn human being.
No, no, no, the woman is clearly the ring, not the jeweler! The ring/woman is supposed to just sit there passively and let the jeweler work his magic on her! No talking, no actions, just sit there quietly and look pretty.
ReplyDeleteHaving just clicked through to think I am currently inspired to go climb a clock tower.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the concept of sex as a "ruination of a woman" was drilled into me from a very young age and it almost ruined my life, and I don't mean that as hyperbole). I internalized the lesson so deeply because I WAS a good girl, deserving of God's love, which just happened to be totally dependent on the approval of my parents, pastor, and any other fuckin' stranger who had an opinion on the topic and who was eager to place my obedience above my mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
As far as I'm concerned, this crap isn't just mockable for it's stupidity, it is dangerous to young minds and should be countered at every turn.
Oh, and I saw a great bumper sticker the other day as well -- "Jesus Loves You (limitted terms and conditions apply)
Clicked through to THE LINK not "to think". Jeez.
ReplyDeleteI am finding it particularly enjoyable to see you laying into the secondary virginity folks. How much farther could they possibly go in revealing that their 'values' don't even match the way THEY want to lead their lives, let alone what most other people want?
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