Messages for Girls to Consider

1. Jesus valued women as children of God and honored them for their lives and place in his reign of love.  He saw their strengths and weainesses and regarded them highly for any expression of faith or love they showed.
2. In Christ there is acceptance, status, security, family, recognition, and freedom.  When a girl has experienced abuse, abandonment, or other trauma, she may be very vulnerable to manipulation.  Men may come into her life, saying all the right things to build her up, only to get her into a position where they can take advantage of her.  This can be done very subtlely, with harmful long-term consequences such as drug use and/or prostitution.
3. A common fallacy is that a girl should be able to see it coming.  Many times the pimping people are too clever.   They seem too real, too charming, too concerned, too fun-loving to be evil.   The game they play is to say whatever, to do whatever works.  Once they have trapped a girl, they become very controlling, possibly very violent.  Watch out for someone who is a little too good to be true.
4. There are two foolish messages people listen to:
   1. Just go ahead, nothing bad can happen, be popular, be sexual, be free.
   2. You blew it, you are used merchandise, you can't protect yourself, you might as well get paid for it.
5. There are two wise messages we often forget:
   1. We can look at who we are in Christ and who Christ wants us to be in the world. Looking from there and praying for guidance, we can make decisions which keep us healthy and lead us to fruitful service.
   2. If we find ourselves doing something which makes us feel cheap and full of self-loathing, we can go to Christ for forgiveness and strength and refuse to regard ourselves as spoiled merchandise.
6. When things start going bad for us, we usually retreat into ourselves and try to solve our own problems.  Often this simply means we hape things will get better.  They usually don't.  Running away puts us at the mercy of strangers who usually want something from us.  It is time to turn from our natural pride and find people we can trust and get them involved in our hurt and dilemma.  There are people who love us even if it doesn't feel like it.   The cost to ourselves and our future children is too great to let some matters go unresolved.
7. If we become caught in a trap we can't escape from, we can keep the faith.  Even though we feel inferior and dirty, God has not abandoned us.  People are praying for us.  We can pray.   We can share our faith.  Remember, Jesus said that people in prostitution and drunkards will go into the Kingdom before the religious leaders of his day.

Created by Adults Saving Kids   Minneapolis, MN    (612) 872-0684