Society forces girls to believe that we should make it our goal in life to “Keep up with the Kardashians.” How can we live extraordinary lives for Christ when we spend all of our time attempting to mirror lives that are against everything that God teaches? Worse we tend to be the cause of our own destruction when it comes to staying within the boundaries that we are lovingly given.

In modern times girls and women are expected to look at members of society like the Kardashians and envy their lifestyle. We are taught to emulate the models, actresses, singers, and women who live the most “worldly” lives. If you’re a virgin you’re considered a prude, if you’re not you are seen as a whore. There’s no winning this game by the secular rules. The game’s rigged. It’s the game of life mixed up with a round of the Hunger games-only one person’s reputation can win and no one makes it out alive without some blood on their hands. How can we hope to end this destructive cycle? Through learning how to walk in faith and turn the everyday tasks into possible moments of greatness for acts of faith. So I’m suggesting we go old school. Biblical. We look back to the original women of fame. The women that were so important and influential in their time that they were recorded for history in the most important book, the Bible.

One of my favorite female Bible characters doesn’t get enough print space in my opinion. She’s broken and bruised and has made so many mistakes and yet I feel like this kindred spirit speaks to me even though we never hear her side of the story. She comes from the Old Testament book of Hosea and her name is Gomer. Gomer is what we would call a “hot mess.” She just screws up time and time again and yet Hosea (enter the prince charming/hunk of her dreams)-the man that God brought to her-forgives her and loves her in a way she feels completely undeserving of.

You see Gomer was a prostitute or some historians just believe she is a “promiscuous woman” when we first meet her. That’s not exactly a pretty picture or typically what you would expect as I talk about one of my favorite biblical characters. But there’s a beautiful picture of what love and commitment look like…not from Gomer…but from Hosea. Gomer even after she was married kept running back to a life of promiscuity and sex slavery and yet Hosea though he had every “right” to divorce her and shame his wife physically met her in the dirt and in her sin and brought her back to their home.

(If that doesn’t make you swoon and think of a Disney fairy tale (PG-13 version) then I don’t know what will.)

Gomer didn’t see the bigger picture that God had laid out for her. She didn’t see herself with the value that God did. That she was a beautiful daughter of God who deserved the best but rather than the best she kept running back to what she believed she deserved. Isn’t it dangerous to start thinking of what we deserve? We either get entitled and inflate our own self image where we can start taking for granted God’s grace or we belittle our self worth and end up settling for something outside of God’s plan.

So God set in motion a plan to rescue her from herself. A plan to bring his daughter closer and to clean her up from her sinful pit that she had dug for herself. God offered her a fresh life, he sent her a husband that loved her and who was most importantly totally committed to her. But Gomer settled for less. She listened to the voices in her head and the shouts of the world and she believed that this fairy tale of hers was too good to be true so she might as well accept what she believed was the only lifestyle available for someone like her.

This is something that we all fall into. This cycle of “I deserve this or I don’t deserve that.” I often think that’s a huge reason why it’s such a cliche that girls fall for the typical bad boy. Not that they truly WANT to be with someone who would not be able to love and cherish them but often girls think that there is nothing better out there. A few mistakes and well you might as well take the best you can get and settle for something. Because we’re given the mindset that rather be with someone who is horrible then be alone. SPOILER! This is BOLOGNA!   
Rather than focusing on what we do or do not deserve why don’t we meditate on what God wants to give us? Why don’t we spend time learning about the types of relationships that God wants to present us with? The loving and committed relationship of a man who fears God. A man rather than a boy. Why don’t we set some higher standards for goodness sake? The world wants you to buy into their point of view but all that gives you is a distorted picture of a shallow sense of happiness that will fade with the next trend cycle. God wants you to seek a lifestyle and relationships that transcends not only trends but this world.