Yesterday’s, today and tomorrow’s newspapers
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper, in the October 23, 1997 (A18) issue, presented a review of Mary McCarty’s book The Body Project, written by Joan Brumberg. This book discusses the difference between how young women looked at themselves a hundred years ago and how they looked at themselves at the end of the 20th century. Brumberg analyzed girls’ diaries from the 1830s to the 1990s. Her conclusion, according to the author of the magazine, was: “In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, girls’ diaries focused on good works “and character enhancement. In the 1990s, his newspapers focused on “and improving the body. “
- For example.
- A newspaper from 1892 said.
- “Did I figure it out?Think before you speak.
- Do a serious job.
- Be controlled in my conversations and attitudes.
- Have dignity.
- Are you more interested in others? Compare that to a 1982 newspaper entry: “I will try to improve my appearance in every way possible.
- With the help of my salary and earn myself as a nanny.
- Will I lose weight.
- Buy new lenses.
- Put on a new haircut.
- Good makeup.
- New clothes and accessories ?.
What is remarkable about this change, from 1892 to 1982, is that it corresponds exactly to the rupture with what is described in the Bible as God’s will for women. Consider changing the course of “good deeds”? To look good. “
Similarly, women, in decent clothing, dress modestly and common sense, not with curly hair and gold, with no pearls, no expensive clothes, but with good deeds (such as the costume of women who call themselves pious) 1 Timothy 2: 9-10.
May the woman’s ornament not be external, such as beaded hair, gold ornaments, dresses; I know, however, the inner man of the heart, united with the incorruptible garment of a still and gentle spirit, which is of great value before God; because was this how the holy women who waited for God once joined themselves?Like Sarah?, of which you became daughters, doing good and without fear of any disturbance (1 Peter 3:3-6).
Brumberg’s diagnosis focuses on the problem; however, it does not reach the target. She wrote: “Today, many girls are worried about the contours of their bodies?Why do you think the body is the essential expression of your ego?That may be true. But it is not profitable to give the impression that more than just the body is the crucial expression of the self. In other words, Brumberg seems to admit that the starting point is the self, and expressing it is all that constitutes life. find out what the “essential expression of the ego is. “
The Bible has a radically different diagnosis of this problem; and a completely different starting point. 1 Peter 3. 5 said, “Is this also how the holy women who waited for God were once called to themselves?It is clear that the biblical starting point is God, in the face of fear of an unacceptable Appearance Does a woman need the approval of God or the approval of men (or other women)?Here’s the secret not to be afraid? (1 Peter 3. 6); the secret to being freed from slavery in the mirror.
The biblical purpose of a woman’s life is not to find the essential expression of the ego (neither in body nor in character). The biblical purpose of life is to express God’s dignity and sufficient greatness. Expressing God, not the ego, is what a devoted woman wants to do. An excessive concern for appearance, hair and body is a sign that the ego, not God, has assumed the centrality of life. If God is at the center of life (like the “sun” ), satisfying all the desires of a woman, of beauty, meaning, truth and love, then food, clothing, exercises, cosmetics, posture and appearance (like them?planets?) will remain in the correct orbit.
If this happens, the records of the next generations will likely go beyond appearance and character and speak of God’s greatness and the triumphs of His grace, and may be more likely to be written in places like Calcutta, rather than in comfortable homes in rich. Countries.
Devotion of John Piper’s book Provai e Vede
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