No man is created by God to be a "horn dog"
"And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things."
~ Terry Pratchett
In my men's Bible study, one of the guys confessed, "I still struggle when a random pretty woman walks by." The general response, in a room full of men was, "Join the club!" (chuckle chuckle). The maleness of men has been used to excuse the sin of viewing and treating women like things or objects, since, well, forever.
In American culture men looking at women as objects to be used sexually has been raised to the level of birthright. The thinking is, just being born male means you are hardwired to look at women and measure them by their sexual attractiveness. Some of this attitude may, in fact, be a genetically based predisposition, but that doesn't mean men are just hardwired to reduce women to sexual objects. Biology, more or less, sets up the way our brains are going to process information. Our brains are hardwired to naturally begin judging, categorizing, compartmentalizing, and etc. whatever we see. We might call this natural brain process as operating under 'factory default settings', or biological default settings. BUT with our brains God also gives us control of, and responsibility of how our minds work by giving us "value judgment" controls. We males may start our adult lives at 13 or 14, at puberty. The male brain newly nuked by powerful hormones give us, typically, what we might call, in common vernacular, "horn dog" setting. The fact guys lose our minds a bit because of the assault of hormones in our youth, does not mean we must, or should leave our mind's value judgment settings at "horn dog" level for the rest of our natural lives! And dads should be teaching their young sons not to allow their mind's settings to stay at "horn dog" level for very long.
Do you remember the first stereo, computer, iPod, or smart cell phone you ever got? I remember the first stereo I ever bought as a young teenager. When I opened the box and took the stereo receiver out I knew I was going to have to do some knob or dial turning before I could ever enjoy the sound of music from my stereo. If I did everything right, to get the stereo set up, according to the way the manufacturer created the stereo, but failed to adjust the the control knobs I'd never hear any music. The default setting, from the factory, for the volume knob was turned all the way to the left at the volume setting "0". "0" means "zero sound". Any guy who is into electronic stuff knows the first thing he's gonna have to do is start changing 'factory settings' before he can uses his cool new tech gadgets. So guys there is no excuse for allowing your minds to continue acting like they did when you were a kid.
The problem with our minds is God's given us prefered settings for our brains, but we've got the volume control set to "0". We're not hearing God's voice. The good news is God has told us the settings he has created for us to work properly, and he's put those in the Bible:
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look
lustfully at a young woman."
Job 31:1
"For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world."
1 John 2:16
"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
Matthew 5:28
Early in my new life in Christ I made a conscious decision to sit down and choose how I was going to look at women. Today at age 51 I'll give you a little view of what that looks like.
My eyes take in the view of a pretty, 18-25 year-old female. Then my brain begins to process this basic information:
First thought: "Young enough to be my daughter/granddaughter."
Second thought: "Little girl"
Third thought: (Usually, but not always), "Could someone please get this child some clothing, cause everything is falling out all over the place!!"
Fourth thought: "Who is this child's dad, and what is he, a PIMP, that he let's this child dress like a HOOKER??!!!"
There are other descriptive words and phrases that come up during the entire process, but all of the value settings lead to one composite, unified, response:
OH H*** NO!!!!!
If you are a guy who claims to be born of God's own Spirit and call Jesus Lord and savior then you have no excuse. You cannot simply go through life with the broken world's attitude and false belief that, "Well, God just made guys this way." God frees and empowers us, and absolutely insists that we take control of our minds and change how we look at and deal with women. Take the time to sit down and consciously decide how your mind is going to respond to women in a godly and righteous way. DECIDE, because God has decided for us, by right now conforming us to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. In Christ our "default" setting now is that we walk in love, righteousness, and godliness. It isn't easy, but we're guys and if you're an adult guy then you know "easy" is rarely a part of the instructions we get in life.
You know the drill...
JUST SOME THOUGHTS,
Lonnie
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