The Pin-Up

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When it came to learning about the birds and bees, the only thing I remember Mama telling me was, "Watch out for women. Once you get them pregnant, you're stuck." Daddy never had that talk with me either, so my first introduction to sex education came from 'National Geographic' magazines. It wasn't long before some of my classmates were passing around girlie magazines with close-ups on the topless models. I knew it was wrong to look at these pictures, but no one really told me why except that God was watching and He had forbidden it. My curiosity was greater than my fear of the Lord, and since no one had come up with a better reason than "God said so", I did what most teenage boys did. I learned to hide nude pictures inside the pages of my school books, because I knew my mother would look under my mattress and through my dresser drawers and I didn't want her to find out I looked at pornography.

In pictures more revealing than this one, where young women strike poses only because they're paid to do so, I learned everything I thought I needed to know about the opposite sex. As it turned out, I didn't learn anything, and when I had my own kids, I gave them the same spiel my parents gave me about sex - which amounted to nothing. So maybe here I can teach my grandchildren something that will make their lives better.

Imagine that you had the actual photograph of the girl above. Draw a circle around her face, then another around her chest, and a third one around her hips. These are the three areas that need the most protection. Image and video hosting by TinyPicIf you will focus on the face inside the circle you've drawn, what do you see? That face could belong to a girl named Katie or Ashley. She's some dad's little princess. Her mom probably drove her to soccer games and put bandaids over scraped knees and elbows. She and her siblings played with Barbie dolls and played make believe dressed in their parents' clothes. Her parents sat through boring and painful piano recitals just to watch their little girl perform - even if her feet could barely reach the pedals and her fingers weren't long enough to cover the keys to create a note properly. No matter how beautiful she becomes, her father will always see her as that 11 year old daddy's girl who dressed like a tomboy and who never left his side. He is torn between pride and fear of the day he has to walk her down the aisle and give her to a man he hopes loves her every bit as much as he does. The hopes and dreams for this girl's future is what motivates her parents to sacrifice and to try to prepare their little girl for a world beyond their ability to help her navigate.

While it's the face that first attracts a boy's (or man's) attention, it is the area between her hips that ignites male passions. The male doesn't see a vaginal canal that leads to the uterus which contains two ovaries that some day may produce an egg that becomes another human being. Image and video hosting by TinyPic The male doesn't care that at least once a month this part of her anatomy that they obsess about is dirty as it carries away impurities from her body. Most males don't know that a woman in childbirth is far more beautiful than a woman who simply spreads her legs to satisfy their lusts.

The area around this girl's chest draws almost as much attention from a guy as does her vaginal area. What guys don't see when they're looking at a woman's breasts is what lies behind them - the most important part of any woman, or man. Image and video hosting by TinyPicLooking at images like this one, especially over time, imprints on the mind, and on the heart. Most men imagine what they would like to do with this girl, but few give any thought as to what they would do once their passions are sated. When done, most men would try to figure out how to get rid of her until they wanted her again.

Kids - grandkids - when you look at images such as this one, it affects your values and your opinions. It's why when a man has been married a few years, he will think back to the images he's imprinted on his mind and start wondering about all the green grass he's missing outside of his marriage. This mental attitude affects his emotional attitude - his heart. The person that he promised to love and cherish and cling to gradually becomes a nagging ball-and-chain that robs him of any pleasure. He starts to look at other women, and if they pay attention to him, and if they present to him what he used to lust over; this man will leave his wife and kids for another woman. And the cycle will repeat itself because the grass will always look greener. To men like this, women become a piece of meat, a recepticle of pleasure - little more than a tool that can be disposed of at will. Love is not a tool.

When God commanded that a man love his wife and cling to her and she to him, He wasn't trying to spoil our fun. He was trying to show us a better way to live. God's love never tries to hurt us, but to protect us from settling for less than His best in our lives. There are things that nobody but our parents when we're young, and our spouses when we're older should see and experience. There ought to be in marriage images imprinted on your heart of secret things that should belong only to you: The way your wife sits on the side of the tub and bends over to towel dry her hair. The scent and feel of the lotion she smoothes on her legs after a bath. The location of a birthmark or scar; her ticklish spots, or the places where your kisses cause her to tremble. You should know the way she snores when she sleeps and miss her snores when you're spending the night alone away from home. Instead of paying to see something that doesn't belong to you, it is better to wait and let her show you what she's been saving for you alone to see. These images ought to be reminders of what you love about the person you have chosen to be in relationship with. If you find the right soul mate, the memories you'll make will last a lifetime.

Guard what you allow your eyes to see - appearances can be deceiving, and the anticipation is usually more exciting than the actual experience. Guard your virtue - give it to the one you plan on spending the rest of your life with. And finally, guard your heart. Don't let the wrong kind of person break it so that you can't give all your love to the right person.