I am going to rant a little in this post. Sorry, but I’m over it. All of it. I am all for staying relevant and understanding our culture. Truly. But I am sick and dang tired of hearing shouts and outcries in the negative. “Miley is crazy,” “Stop the mommy wars,” “Obama is a tyrant,” “You’re not a human being if you don’t support public breastfeeding,” “America, you are not weeping over your sin and therefore God will destroy you.”

Over it.

I am not saying that any of these [admittedly exaggerated] statements are false, although I  do think this the whole public breastfeeding issue has garnered more attention than it really merits. I can agree that we are an arrogant, perverted, selfish, sinful culture – what did we really expect from Miley? [These are two posts that approach her performance thoughtfully and respectfully: Sorry, Miley and How do we help Miley?] The Mommy Wars are out of control – even in my own semi-sheltered world, I feel their effects and think they are destroying genuinely good mothers. Maybe President Obama is a tyrant, but I can’t see what good shouting about it on Social Media does anyone. I’ve already addressed America’s misery and the whole bizarre breastfeeding shennanigans.

My point is this – the character of Americans will not be altered by arrogant, pride-sin shouts for the other side of the line. It will be changed in humility and love. And I believe there is room for truth between the two.

The Mommy Wars will not be ended until those of us who know where our identity lies choose to find it there instead of in the approval of the latest parenting guru – Christian or not – or the mother of 4 under the age of 5 at Publix who is dressed beautifully and is gleefully chatting with all of her well-behaved lovies while you shuffle through the aisles in cut-offs and an old t-shirt…without your children who are at home with their daddy.

President Obama is still a human being. I don’t agree with much of anything that he does, but he is still a creation of God. Tyrant or not, God has allowed him to be the leader of our country. We will see no change in any area of our government until we learn to collectively speak truth in humility and love. Maybe we won’t even see it then, but we will be blameless before the God who, in fact, is still in control of all things.

I’m sorry. I cannot get behind the fight for public breastfeeding. I don’t care if you choose to breastfeed in public or not. I think you should be allowed to, but I’ll not be throwing any weight or words around for it when there are women all over the world who are so malnourished that they cannot even produce the milk their babies need to survive. For them I want to fight a better fight – louder and harder.

I want to fight better for justice – for the orphan in foster care who carries his whole life in a trash bag. For the old man forgotten. For the abused mama, for the addict, for the prostitute – who are looking for a second chance at life. For the child star who has been exploited her whole life and now doesn’t know up from down – for her to be reminded of love that covers. For the single mama who is at the end of her rope and just needs to know that someone sees her and his cheering her on.

We should be using every resource we have to speak truth, but if our words are not spoken in love – we are little more than an annoyance. 

I’ll close with this:

How can I stand up before God
    and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings
    topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams,
    with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child,
    my precious baby, to cancel my sin?