Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Input=Output

I don't have cable. And I don't subscribe to magazines. So this week as I housesit I flipped on the TV to find something to watch. And I don't know why, everything seemed to be in a different light to me. In less than 20 minutes I saw an add for The Abrocket, braces, mascara, and body lotion. It wasn't as if I haven't seen these ads before. In fact, I know several of them almost by heart. But today some of the key phrases seemed to pop out at me. "Do you want to loose those lovehandles that NOBODY loves about you and have the body that will make your life happy?"....."my daughter was miserable before her braces. Now she's happy because she's pretty"......"with stelleto mascara, you'll be the talk of the town. You'll stop ANY man in his tracks. Walk on the wild side". Even a body lotion as simple as Nivea has adds that show a woman putting lotion on and being swept off her feet and straight into bed by a hot guy. I could go on. You get the point. This disgusts me. I got mad at the TV and flipped open a copy of Seventeen instead. The ads were no better. I wanted to puke at the fresh realization that girls-young girls-are getting this at such an early age and point in their lives. We see it and get used to it and are infiltrated with it all ou lives. With a wave of understanding, I can "get" why I've spent YEARS thinking being overweight is a reason to despise myself. Ugh. It makes me want to scream!!! I just want to take every teen i work with and sit her down and force her to read Captivating and So Long Insecurity. We've GOT to be the different ones here! We don't usually notice anything wrong with the ads that scream at us every day. But if we think about it, they ARE wrong. Very wrong. Every add we see is telling us to that if we just get the right product, we'll be pretty or sexy or with the times or envied enough. And, they claim that if we are those things, we'll be happy enough. No wonder America is the most obese and financially in dept and miserable. We are bombarded by our society to spend and eat to find happiness and comfort. It's all a gigantic lie. America needs to stop allowing themselves to be influenced. It's a choice and we CAN refuse. America doesn't need food. And it doesn't need more "stuff". I'm proof. I just left a job for another job where I'm getting less hours. I'm determined to take time to make my life about healing and about showing Jesus to others, rather than about how many hrs I can work and how much I can get payed. We don't need stuff. We need Jesus. And to bring Him to our world.

2 comments:

michellemabell said...

Great post Elisabeth. :)
Without Jesus, I can't imagine surviving or let alone just living in this world!

S.E. Frase said...

Right on Lizzie!