Bullheaded Determination...in the name of Jesus

Well, we've reached Monday October 24. This means that I have exactly one week left in the dress. Yay!! We're in the home stretch now! I'm hopeful that it will be easy from here, because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, yet something tells me it will be harder. I'm scared that I'll try to talk myself into quitting early, claiming I've already done it thus far and am close enough to November that it doesn't matter anymore.

I tend to be a very rational person. I can rationalize anything. Yet, within my rationality is a dualistic tendency allowing me to argue successfully for multiple conflicting things at the same time. I can successfully convince myself that it's close enough to November to just quit, but at the same time be convincing myself it's so close to the end that I can make it... Such completely different results, yet both being rationalized in my head right now.

Stubbornness is a curse and a gift. It can exasperate people when I am extremely bullheaded. However, in a situation such as finishing out the month, my stubbornness and determination to finish will see me through. Call it a gift or a curse, it was sheer bullheadedness that made me put the dress on every morning, even though I was silently cursing it under my breath.

I don't want to seem completely shallow by those statements. It makes me sound like I'm only doing this for me. I'm not, and I hope it doesn't come off that way. As I wrote a couple of posts ago, this has become a practice in patience and perseverance. Learning to embrace the sheer determination to do something hard because I know it's what's right and what I'm meant to do. 

Because this is what I'm meant to do in order to bring attention to a fraction of God's Children who are being used and abused. Just as I have this contradictory nature, so does the pattern of victimization and persecution of those involved in sex trafficking. When able to escape their captors/pimps, many girls have no where to go and no way to survive. They turn to prostitution as a way to make money. They use the only skill they know, and were raised to exploit, as a means of survival. These same girls are then arrested and charged with prostitution. It's like we are, as a society, choosing to punish the victims of a corrupt system instead of helping them. Doesn't that seem contradictory? Punishing the victims??

That's why it's so important that we have shelters like The Daughter's Place in Toledo and Rahab's Hideaway in Columbus. These shelters give girls an escape from the cycle of victimization and prostitution that has unfortunately become a norm. Girls are able to not only heal from their experiences, but are taught new skills and given self confidence so that they can lead a normal life. It's an attempt to break these double-standards, and giving thousands of girls a new lease on life.

Double-standards exist in every aspect of society. I believe that God has given me this gift/curse of rationality and stubbornness in order to better understand the sheer contradictory nature of the world around me. I will face the dichotomy within myself with determination, just as so many people persevere through pain and abuse in order to find a better life.

So, I guess you could say that my I am being bullheaded and stubborn in the name of Jesus- persevering to help bring an end to the double standard of society and their treatment of victims of human trafficking.

Fish and I modeling our dresses