I'm not gonna skirt the issue (pun intended)

My bad. When I announced that I was accepting comments from non-registered users, I forgot to actually change the setting. Sorry about that, if anyone even noticed.

First day of school was today. Bummer, there goes the summer (ha! that rhymes!). The first day of school was not particularly eventful, for me at least. Although I do think I'm gonna go back to locker 4. I far prefer it.

One of the things I noticed right away (although this wasn't a big part of my day, I do feel the pull to blog about it) was the fashion trends. Not that they were a whole different from before, but now I guess I'm thinking about it differently than I used to. The fashion item? Low cut shirts. Man, those are so popular right now, probably half the girls I go to school with wear them on a fairly regular basis.

And I'm not talking about a loose shirt or something, I'm talking about clothes designed for the sole purpose of showing off ample amounts of cleavage. You know, the kind of clothing that's not so much for covering anymore, but for "look! look at this!"

So basically I don't understand this fashion trend. Are these girls making an effort to cause temptation and be lusted after? Because, well, that's about all that's being accomplished. Women are by no means objects, but it seems like this constant showing of cleavage appears to show that some people wouldn't be too upset with that label. To me it's pretty sad.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to attack girls for dressing this way. As big of a problem is the guys who lust after them. Which basically is every male teenager.

Unfortunately, I cannot exclude myself from that list. I've been guilty of lust about a million times over. I know it's wrong, and I know it's a sin. But every day, I'll catch myself looking down someone's shirt or something (Especially with it being so easy lately). I feel pretty guilty for it. I want to not do that at all, but there's a part of me known as "sinful nature" which, along with its friend "hormones" feels very differently. I think it's fair to say lust is one of the biggest temptations in my life right now. It probably goes for others too.

It's a real catch-22. The guys themselves are lusting, but the girls are creating and breeding these feelings of lust. It goes to show that no one's perfect.

So let's hit up the Bible for some guidance. Phillippians 4:8, a fairly familiar verse, states "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Simply put, it says that we have a command from God to think pure things. Can we, with our sinful nature, do this at all times? Of course not. I didn't have to tell you that. However, I think we should all make a conscious effort to keep our minds pure, no matter our environment.

Temptation is never going to leave, at least until we're in Heaven. So it's not fair to sit here and blame temptation for our sins(It may seem like I'm doing that here, but I take full responsibility for my sins, I'm just channelling frustration toward the temptation). Sometimes we can avoid temptation, but other times, we're surrounded. It doesn't seem fair. But we can keep our minds pure even then. God gave us some awesome gifts to help us - our conscience, and prayer. Our conscience obviously can tell us that we're doing wrong. Without my conscience, I would never have thought in this way. Lusting is an enjoyable thing, but I feel guilty about it. And it can make me realize that this is actually a sin.

The second tool, then, is prayer. We can pray for a few things considering sins. First, we can pray for forgiveness for these sings we have, but also, pray for the strength to resist temptation. And believe me, prayer is powerful. I never really believed it myself until I tried doing it regularly. So you can never know until you try.

I kind of feel like a hypocrite, because I've always been a proponent for this kind of clothing, for very obvious reasons. Even quite recently. But I think I kind of realized that there's way more to life than staring at cleavage. Will I continue to commit this sin? In all likelihood, yes. It's a weakness in my sinful nature. However, I'll pray that I, and any one of the many others being pressured by this sin will be able to resist temptation and live for the right reasons.

The signature Camp Phillip dedication to God is starting to become a permanent part of myself, I hope.