While I was trying to go to sleep

I started thinking about something. I thought about how today I was watching old episodes of Smallville on my computer and (personal sharing time coming up, be warned) and I then saw a clip of a pretty sexy scene from an episode I remember watching way back when when one of the characters, who is minus her inhibitions thanks to some kryptonite, strips down to her lingerie and jumps into a pool, trying to seduce Clark Kent. When I first saw this as a young teenage male, it was pretty impacting on my road of puberty. I'm ashamed to say that I lusted today just as I did then. However, this post is less about "Dan's confessional time" and more of the point I'm trying to make. As i was thinking about this just now, I realized how messed up our culture is and why it affects almost all males growing up. With tv, movies, music, and the internet, it is incredibly easy for someone to see images of sexuality, be it a steamy scene in a tv show or a pornographic site on the internet, images of illicit sexuality are all over the place. Thinking about this, the reason why this is such a great problem struck me. Because boys are able to access this garbage (which is what it is, sinful, lustful, garbage) at early ages (I think I read a stat that most boys have seen some form of porn by age 8), their first glimpse of what they ought to have in their future marriage is of sexuality, of physicality, not of genuine love or devotion. This usually leads to a sex-first, love-later sort of ideal that we can see all throughout our culture. Thankfully, God blessed me with parents who raised me well so that despite my struggles with lust growing up, I don't see women as merely sexual objects. One of the problems in our culture that goes hand-in-hand with accessible sexuality is the lack of parental guidance. I was blessed with parents who loved God and taught me well, most people don't have the same blessing. According to a Census taken in 2009, there are over 13 million single parents in America and 84% are mothers. There is a complete lack of fathers in America and that greatly contributes to the degeneration of American males. When porn is just a click away and there is no father around to teach a son about respect for women or to demonstrate love for his wife, it's no wonder that Hugh Hefner is one of the most successful businessmen in the United States.

To close, I'll end with this quote from CJ Maheney, which I saw via Mark Driscoll's twitter feed:
"You must touch the heart and mind of your wife before you touch her body."