"...The emptiness I felt inside seemed infinate and my self-image continued to decline. Over the course of the next 3 years, being a stripper became my identity. My already tainted view of men seemed permanently damaged. I developed the notion that all men were inherently perverted and sick. I began to use stripping as a way to take back control of my sexuality. I finally felt like I had the upper hand. I learned to exploit for myself, the very thing that men had already exploited...my body.
My view of the world was tarnished. I couldn't go anywhere without thinking that people saw me in a sexual way. I felt reduced to an object and in “real life”, I tried to hide behind baggy clothes and glasses. All of my efforts and energy were put into trying to make my abusive, dysfunctional relationship work. I thought that my life and existence was hopeless and that the relationship was the only salvageable thing left. In my search for one good and pure thing, I clung onto my boyfriend with all of my strength and sacrificed my dignity to keep him in my life. All of my adoration, love and worship were focused on a person who was too selfish to ever really love me.
In retrospect, I can see that God’s heart was deeply pained by my brokenness. He wanted nothing more that to extend his hand to me and show me my beauty and worth—to help me see the value I never saw in myself.
Like a gentleman, He pursued me with his infinite love until he captured my heart. I finally met a Lover who would never leave me—the only One who could satisfy my needs. He took the hollow and empty pit inside me that had been carved out by a lifetime of disappointment and despair, and He filled it with hope, love, and purpose.
The journey since has not always been easy and I have made mistakes along the way, but I have discovered that the pain of staying the same is far greater than the pain of change. My frantic search for a man’s love to complete me is over. I am not perfect, but I am whole and I am free.
Precious woman, I promise you…if you are facing a challenging time, there is hope. You are not alone. Your One True Love is calling your name."
Our world seems to be getting progressively more sexually saturated, heavily promoting and pushing many sex-related fallacies, one of which is the false idea that women in porn and prostitution and online webcams--all parts of the sex industry-- are more "sexually empowered" and "sexually free". But nothing could be further from the truth. Go to www.iamatreasure.com (and Pink Cross by Shelley Lubben, discussed below) and read the testimonies of other women who have been strippers as well as being involved in other parts of the sex industry and realize the truth behind the scenes. Understand what led them into it, how they got out, and what they are doing now. They are finding their true sense of worth and esteem and true sexual empowerment from the One and Only God who can give it to them...the One who sent His Beloved Son Jesus to die for them, because He loved them; they are a treasure to Him, worth dying for.
The same is true for you-- all of you women who think you can become "sexually empowered" by using your body to make money, sharing the most private, intimate places of your body with men, who also blindly believe they will find what they are looking for-- in all the wrong ways and places. God cares passionately about both the men and women involved in the sex industry-- the male and female prostitutes (children and adults); strippers; porn stars; pimps and madams; pornographers; traffickers; and customers of all parts of the sex industry seeking something, continually going back but ultimately being unfulfilled. God's heart is breaking as He is watching so many people around the world looking for love and acceptance and worth, but winding up captives instead.
You ladies are worth more than allowing yourself to be used and abused; so many women are beaten and violently assaulted in the sex industry. They get manipulated and insulted and degraded and facing continuous dangers, including with sexually transmitted diseases (condoms can only reduce the risk, not eliminate it; how many of you are using them 100% of the time?). Don't deceive yourself into believing that you are being "sexually empowered" and that men have any respect for you; most men (generally speaking) never have and never will respect, or truly love, women who willingly to "put out". So don't think that they will love you more if you do get involved in the sex industry.
You men are also worth more than buying into the lie of "boys will be boys" and "this is what 'real' men do". You will not find your answers or fulfillment in strip clubs or porn movies or prostitutes. None of them can heal those hurting places in you, give you a sense of worth, or validate you as a man. God is the only One who can do that. He is the Spring of Living Water (Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13). Only with God can you be "satisfied as with the richest of foods" (Psalm 63:5).
God has a much better purpose for your life. Seek Him, the only One who can and will love you with an unfailing love, and who promises to never leave nor forsake you--you are the one who has to leave Him.
"But now, this is what the Lord says-- He who created you...
He who formed you......'Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep
over you. When you walk through the fire, the flames will not
set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of
Israel, your Savior;...Since you are precious and honored
(worthy of great esteem and respect!) in My sight,
and because I love you...Do not be afraid, for I am with you..."
(Isaiah 43: 1-5)
Blessings,
Tonya
www.myspace.com/treasuresnonprofit
www.iamatreasure.com
