Since this is Holy Week, I am extraordinarily busy here at the church. We had a wonderful Palm/Passion Sunday and we're now working toward Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunrise, and Easter worship. What a week! But while I don't have time to write a full post this week, I do want to share something with you that I think you should know about. If you were in the Parents' Sunday School Book Study of Sex + Faith: Talking to Your Children from Birth through Adolescence you know that we've talked a lot about healthy body image. The fact of the matter is that our money-driven culture doesn't care what is healthy for us. Our money-driven culture only cares what makes money. Our culture hits us from both sides. We are stuffed full of so much stuff that we're just fat and (supposedly) happy or we are told that we need to be sexy all the time. Whatever happened to healthy? So we have to have our own values and not let our money-driven culture set our values for us.
With this in mind I came across an article about a wonderful new company started by an 18-year-old named Megan Grassell. It is a company that makes age-appropriate bras for girls 11-15 years old. Why is your 35-year-old male pastor writing about this? I know there aren't a lot of pastor who would be willing to touch this topic with a ten foot pole, but I think it is important. I'm writing about it because I'm not just the pastors to the adults; I'm the pastor to the kids and families as well. Plus I'm the father of a little girl, and I'm tired of the over-sexualization and cheapening of our bodies that takes place in our money-driven culture.
The company started when Megan took her little sister shopping for her first bra, but all she could find were sexy, padded, push up type of bras for little girls! So Megan decided to start her own company to fix this problem. She called it Yellowberry. It is all about healthy body image and treating little girls like little girls rather than as little women. Please take a few moments to go to the following link:
The company started when Megan took her little sister shopping for her first bra, but all she could find were sexy, padded, push up type of bras for little girls! So Megan decided to start her own company to fix this problem. She called it Yellowberry. It is all about healthy body image and treating little girls like little girls rather than as little women. Please take a few moments to go to the following link:
Remember, we have to have our own values and not let our money-driven culture set our values for us. Our kids are too important for us to let them be thrown to and fro by the waves of culture. With this in mind, thanks to some of the funds given by the late Jennifer Shaw I have put together a lending library of books for kids, youth, and parents about healthy body image, body care, and sexuality. Don't let your kids hear it from someone else! First Presbyterian Church is here to help.
Have a blessed Holy Week,
Pastor Everett
