Dear Satan,
I was listening to an audiobook at work yesterday, and they said some things that really got under my skin. It talked about some things I’ve watched my friends battle, some things I’ve battled myself.
This book is called The Sacred Search: What If It’s Not about Who You Marry, But Why? by Gary Thomas. It talks about why you should get married, rather than who to look for. Its impacted me a lot.
Marriage is a covenant. The definition of a covenant is: a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement. Marriage was created by God as such a good thing. But, per usual, you took it and twisted it and broke it. You stole the joy from it.
It came. I knew it would be there, but wasn’t sure how they would address it. The author talked about pornography. I’ve had a lot of conversations with brothers on the topic. How it’s affected them, how they are afraid of how it can affect their future marriages, but how they have been redeemed from it. Often the subject is skipped over on women. You know as well as I do that women struggle with pornography and other sexual sins as much as some of our brothers. But you shame us more for it. Women don’t talk about it because they’re afraid to. You’ve fed us as many lies about it as you could. And unfortunately, we’ve accepted those lies. I’m willing to tell you this: I will not listen to your lies any more. I will be vulnerable and honest with my community. And I will encourage all of my sisters who have fought this fight, and are fighting this fight still, to do the same. You can continue to lie to me. I know the Truth, and I will cling to that Truth. I. Am. Free.
You’ve led a lot of people to really break marriage covenants. If you haven’t led them to actually breaking them, you’ve made these covenants hard to enter because of damage you’ve led me and my friends into before entering actual relationships/covenants. Though the choice is ours, but you’ve made the alternatives seem so much better. Its a good thing we’ve grown to know the Truth to combat your lies. We also have community, vulnerability, and love. Things you don’t have.
You think you’re sly. You think you’re smart. You think you own us. But I’ve got some bad news.
YOU DON’T.
We were bought with a price, a perfect life for our sinful lives. We are loved despite what we’ve done against our Creator. He loves us anyway. And all you do is destroy. Though we made the choices…God still loves, cares, and provides for us. Though some of us now have things to confess to future spouses, to future friends and significant others, we still get to have hope. We still get to walk in forgiveness. We get to love and be loved because He loves us. Every day.
You don’t win. At the end of the day, you know that. We know that. So you can try to whisper the lies to us. You can tempt us with the images. But even though you might win a battle–you’ll never win the war. We’re still redeemed. You still don’t own us.
His grace redeems us. And my name is cleared. My very name, Victoria Anne, by definition means Victorious Grace. So guess what? You don’t own me. You don’t own my friends, the people I love. And honestly, you can go to Hell.
Sincerely,
Victoria Anne.
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