Sunday Sermon for September 28, 2014: A Woman's Eyes

I see a woman in her eyes; her humor and anger, joy and sadness, love and hatred.  

The eyes reveal her soul; her depth and complexity. She is truly a creation of beauty to behold; the delicate porcelain doll to be placed on the pedestal and admired.  

I see in her the mother of life, to be kept out of harm's way and protected from the misery around her.  

In her eyes I can see what we were, are now, and will become; our past, present, and future.  

In our struggle for life, we retreat to memories of her eyes and remember why we fight to survive and come home. 

I see a woman in her eyes and remember what it is to love and to feel alive.

With all of the abuse in the news over the past few weeks, I thought it might do us well, as men, to remember how we came to be and why we continue to exist.  After all, if it weren't for a woman none of us would be here.  If you raise a hand to a woman, you raise a hand to your mother; the mother of us all.  You risk shattering the fragility of nature and your own soul. 

If you raise a hand to a woman, consider this before you act.  You are a man.  As such you have the strength to physically cause her pain and mental anguish.  You also have the strength to stay your hand and find a better, more tolerant way.  Sometimes we find applied philosophy in strange places.  Consider this quote:   

"Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing."

-- Star Trek IV

It seems, at times, man spends too much of life destroying and not enough time doing that which is truly necessary for his life - creating and loving.

This Sunday, maybe we can make an attempt to look into the eyes of a woman and tell her, "I love you for being a woman."  Try being the sensitive man they might not see enough of, instead of the ass that slaps the crap out of his woman in an elevator or beats his child with a stick.  This is what some have come to expect.  

Try being something else.  Try being a "real" man.

Oh, and buy some flowers, for goodness' sake.

"The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair.  The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where she resides.  The true beauty is a woman is reflected in her soul.  It's the caring and loving she gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years."

-- Audrey Hepburn

Note from the founder, author, and editor:  

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, understand that this is just an opinion and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion.  It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other.  An opinion in this context is a way to incite others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own if they haven’t already done so.  It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning them.  It is in the arena we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.  

Frank Villari, Pastor