Save the Girls

It is the 21st century and girls seem to be getting all the attention they need. Or, are they? Suddenly, they have become the face of everything trendy. From the arts to the acts, girls have become the go-to vixens for everything pleasurable.

Like toys only worthy of the highest bidder, our society has price tags on our girls and we don’t even know it yet. And to attain a class worthy of the highest bidding seems to be the press of the average young girl.

It is the 21st century, and our girls are growing up so fast. So fast that mothers need extra classes to catch up. The knowledge gap seems so wide and does not have room for the good old “mama talks”. Those things are obsolete.

Fathers have passed up on the responsibility to love, lead, teach, and protect. And mothers don’t know what to do with the void.

So, mentorship has become just a few clicks away in the wild jungle of social media. Reduced to the pressure of chasing the costliest human hair, designer bags, shoes, and jewelry by all means, even if their bank of dignity has to deplete for it.

It is the 21st century, and girls are comfortable with becoming baby mamas for the right price. Nothing is left to be desired of matrimony if the society has tons of “successful independent women” modeling that pattern of life. And more so, have “success” stories to justify it.

But the girl is now only a shadow of the man charged with the responsibility of tending her like a garden. From the father to the brother, the teacher, the lover, and the husband that defines his original calling, the man has become the monster she dreads. He seeks her out like prey for the hunt, regardless of whether or not she is up for the game.

It is the 21st century, and girls need ATTENTION. But not the kind that objectifies and monetize them.

Like Mordecai to Esther, a generation of purposeful leaders must rise up to cover our girls. Cover them from the treacherous grip of lust, vanity, and vainglory, regardless of the pressure to fit into a godless structure that makes the girl out to be an object of sexual satisfaction. Cover them from the treacherous eyes of unholy men who lie in wait to devour.

Mordecai took Esther under his wings, shepherding her like only a true covering knows to do until he presented her an epitome of virtue worthy to wear the crown of a queen. And in so doing, reversed the death sentence hanging over the Persian king and the Jews in her day. (See the book of Esther).

It is the 21st century and we must begin to see our girls for who they really are; as God’s masterpieces. They are a reflection of His image. As daughters, they are the spark in their father’s eyes, as mothers, they are incubators and builders of destinies, as wives, they are crowns that adorn their husbands’ heads, as partners, they are a helpmeet suitable.

The call to save our girls is a call to change the narrative that says the girl is weak, incapable, and only good for one thing. You know that one thing. But the girl is anything but weak and incapable. The girl is Mary, the woman who bore Jesus the messiah and gave the world a reason to hope again. The girl is Miriam who preserved Moses from annihilation. The reason Israel broke free from slavery in Egypt. The girl is Ruth of Moab, an epitome of unwavering faith and bravery. The girl is Hannah, the reason God found a faithful judge for Israel in Samuel. The girl is Deborah, one who made her mark within the ranks of judges in Israel. The girl is Mary and Martha of Bethany, women who ministered to Jesus’ needs all through his days of ministry on the earth.

The girl is she who is reading this right now. She is strong because she is birthed in a “man’s world” and yet rises above the disadvantage; she is brave because she defies the odds and dares to do a Deborah; she is chosen because she is wired to nurture; she has a purpose and the future depends on it.

But in the 21st century, the wave of various “women movement initiatives” have not done our girls so much good, and we must push back the tide of lies they have been made to believe about themselves. The lie that has the woman trying to usurp authority over a God-ordained structure of leadership and accountability. The lie that makes the woman confrontational, rather than submissive. The lie that has the woman believing that meekness is weakness and brashness is strength. That kind of education is counterproductive.

The girl is an endangered specie, and save her we must. For in her is the seed of the future generation. The harvest of a breed required to save our nations. She is a mother, a sister, a wife, and everything else God has wired her to become.

It is the 21st century, and the girl herself must rise up to seek true leadership covering; resist the pressure to care much about social media imagery; debunk the lie that says her freedom is in her rebellion, and position herself for purposeful life impacts.

Shalom!

Biyama Joseph

#TheInfluencer