Hooked on Fishing

Yesterday, I saw this tweet from @Jeffersonbethke

[...] Ladies, stop using your bodies to manipulate dude's emotions & actions. Your bodies are holy, they're not fish hooks.

At first I read it and I was said a hearty, "Amen!" and went on with my day.

Now, I am not at all the kind of girl who parades around town in a short skirt and halter top. I'm not the type of girl who dresses up just around men. I'm not even the type of girl who openly flirts with guys. Because my Momma raised me right - with the understanding that a lady doesn't flaunt it all. I could give you a string of sayings that I've heard growing up about not giving the milk away with the bath water or something like that, but I'll spare you my colloquialisms. At first, I didn't really think that tweet applied to me, but it was definitely something that I needed to share with a few friends. You know, sometimes the Lord shows us something convicting so we can share it with the appropriate person, right?

Seriously though, later that evening when it popped up on my Twitter Home Page again, I realized that maybe it did apply to me. Maybe there were times that I said things to get a positive response from a guy. Maybe I did wear just the right color in order to catch a man's attention. Maybe I did put on that one specific dress for church on Sunday in hopes that a gentleman would notice. And are these things wrong? Honestly, I think not. I think God has given women certain gifts for a reason. It's when we forget that our bodies are holy, and we start using them just to get noticed, that we begin stepping in places we shouldn't be stepping.

I love the following quote from Elisabeth Elliot in response to a woman asking the question, "What can I do to get him to notice me?"

“My answer is ‘nothing.’ That is, nothing toward the man. Don’t call him. Don’t write a little note with a smiley face or a flower or fish under the signature and put it in his campus mailbox. Don’t slide up to him in the hall and gasp, ‘I’ve just got to talk to you!’ Don’t look woebegone, don’t ignore him, don’t pursue him, don’t do him favors, don’t talk about him to nine carefully selected listeners.”

There is one thing you can do: turn the whole business over to God. If he’s the man God has for you, ‘…No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly’ (Ps. 84:11). Direct your energies to obedience, not to nailing the man. God has His own methods of getting the two of you together. He doesn’t need any help or advice from you.  The word nothing is a little dose of reality that will help you constantly check your motives whenever relating to a guy. This is not saying you can’t do nice things for a man; it is simply a warning to check your motives.

Don't get me wrong. I think there are appropriate times to encourage a man in his pursuit, but it's so easy to get caught up in the flirting games. We all want that one person to find us, cherish us, and love us for a lifetime. I all too often put that desire before my desire to honor the Lord, so I do what I can with what I have to try to push my agenda. But here's the thing: God made me a woman. He gave me my hazel eyes for a reason. He blessed me with red hair for a reason. He specifically formed me for a reason. And I can tell you right now that the reason isn't solely to gain attention from the opposite sex, but it shows how much He loves me to pay so much attention to my details.

All of this is to say, that I want to encourage each of you to remember that you are not a fish hook. You are a treasured and cherished daughter of God. And don't you dare forget that, "Charm is deceptive & beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised!" - Proverbs 31:30

:j