397 Reasons Why I Do Not want My Daughter On The Bachelor

                                                            I lied. 

But, you knew that.

I don't have 397 reasons, why I would not want my daughter on the Bachelor. If forced, I could give you that many reasons, if I spent time thinking about it. 

That's just it. It's not worth my time.

Sure Juan Pablo is darling, the little I have seen of him.

I'm not a fan of the show but when I am with my daughter and her friends I have been known to join in the fray...

and fray it quickly becomes. 

My reasons.

 I'll give you a few.

Beautiful daughter...

Don't be someone's entertainment, unless it's on your terms.

You will not look like the person you truly are. 
Repeat that... repeatedly.

Recognize that you deserve to be pursued by a man. 

Not a boy, a man who knows who he is, and the value of a good woman.

Don't compete with other women for a guy.  

Read above.

This will not end well. 

Watch all previous seasons if you do not believe me.

Okay, except season One. 

That is all I would say to her.

She probably has 398 reasons to never be on the show. 

She does not need her mama to tell her the above truths. 

She knows her value.

Yet we say it's simply entertainment.
 Perhaps, but I think at the end of the day, the season... damaged people emerge from the smoke and mirrors.

I wonder how many stumble out saying, "Wow, that was fun."

Even those who went in strictly for notoriety, fame, a challenge.

Fun quickly escalates into not so fun, because that is the goal of the show.

Not love... but we already knew that.

We are wired for intimacy and relationship.

Not games.

Yet, this is where we have ended up.

At some point I hope we become bored of watching peoples make believe lives and go back to building real ones.

 

WORD... Freedom.

                                     "Freedom is just another word for ‘nothing left to lose’" – Janis Joplin

   

                                   A favorite song growing up was Janice Joplin's, Me and Bobby Mcgee.

 "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose, and nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free"...  

My rebel heart sang those words, wanting freedom more than anything else.

 I was a child of the seventies and the sixties had left a wide swath of destruction, I mean freedom, for us bell bottomed, farrah haired young ones trying to figure it out.

I desired freedom from anyone and anything that might control me. 

I played God like a well worn yo-yo.

 My terms, my rules, my way. 

I had nothin' left to lose...

And then one day... I realized that God is freedom.

Freedom from my empty desires, 

to please, be good enough, kind enough....

to DO enough.

This was big. It still is... Freedom has power to do that.

To last, change lives. So...

My word for 2014 is Freedom.

God says to us,

Stop trying so hard. I give you freedom. You will never be good enough, kind enough or Do enough.

But it's okay. I don't want that from you.

I want you to love me... because I first loved you.

That's it.

No hoops to jump through.

No tests to pass... or fail.

I am enough.

I am God, and I love you.

Will you choose freedom this year, in me?

I still love me some Bobby Mcgee, but now I get it.

I have nothin' left to lose...

because I can't lose with Christ.

That word will see me through 2014...

because I got nothin' left to lose. 

He's got me in the palm of His hand.

Do you have a word for this year?

Tell me.