Here is my disclaimer, friends. This article is not PG rated. It might make you blush. It will probably stir some feelings of either strong agreement, or perhaps strong defense, but no matter how you feel by the end of this, I need you to know one thing going in… If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t say it. If I wasn’t honestly deeply concerned, I wouldn’t take my very valuable time to talk about it. And if I didn’t love the people that I know will read these words, then there would be no point in discussing it. But because I care, and I’m concerned, and I love you, I cannot leave these words unsaid. So, here we go…

I was scrolling through Facebook a few years ago, when I began to hear talk of a new book, 50 Shades of Grey. Friends of mine from high school, college and even church were all raving about finishing the first and eagerly anticipating the next in the series. I was intrigued, (and out of the loop.) So, I Googled it.

From Amazon if you have no previous knowledge of it, “When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.”

I didn’t have any desire to read it, so I moved along and didn’t think much more about it. But soon, the books began to create a buzz. People became divided about whether or not to read them, and articles and posts were written from those on all sides of the argument. And honestly? I felt like everything had been said that needed to be said about it. Minds were made up. Hearts were sure. People were going to do what people were going to do when it came to reading or not reading. And so, I stayed (mostly) quiet.

But with the resurrection of the books now in movie form, I feel absolutely obligated to say this to the Christian women who read these words and plan to see the movie.

Please, sweet friend. Don’t. Just… don’t.

I hear from young wives and mothers all of the time who are struggling in their marriages. Who desperately need help finding hope in the day to day tasks that are asked of them. Who feel as though their marriages are falling apart because they don’t know how to balance being a wife and a mother and everything else, and who need help remembering what it feels like to be deeply in love with their husbands again.

And yet, I hear so many Christian women argue that going to see this movie is simply entertainment and may even help their marriage.

But friend? I must say this. It is a complete lie that going to see the movie will help your marriage. And an even bigger lie is that it won’t affect you it all. Because it will. The things that you see cannot be unseen. The feelings that you experience from being entertained by those scenes cannot be unfelt. And if marriages aren’t under enough pressure already, going to watch pornography is only throwing gasoline on relationships experiencing fire from all directions.

It’s destruction. And you are walking to the door, and inviting in into your life.

You want to spice up your marriage? You want to save your relationship from being stagnant, or save the passion from slipping away in the day in and day out expectations of you and your husband? Don’t ask Christian Grey for help. Don’t watch Christian Grey do whatever he would like to Anastasia Steele and expect it to heal that deep hurt and need for intimacy in your own heart.

Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can speak to the places in our hearts that need to feel alive and loved again.

I have thought a lot about whether or not Jesus would speak about this if He lived today. And I decided this. No. He probably wouldn’t. He wouldn’t waste one breath on seeing this particular movie.

But do you know what He would have done? He would have addressed the bigger heart issue that our society is facing which is the lack of respect and honor for our spouse in a culture that is saturated with pride and selfishness.

Jesus would have spoken to the greater hurt so many wives experience as they feel unseen and unloved in their own marriages. And He would have addressed the men who feel as though they aren’t respected in their own homes. He would have said this,

“Wives honor your husbands. Husbands, love your wives.”

He would have reminded us that our marriages are designed as a reflection of Christ’s love for the Church (us.)

SO that’s what I want to do. I want to remind us of the bigger issue here, but I want to do so by saying this. If we are going to honor Christ with our marriages, then we need to leave Christian Grey out of our minds.

We need to honor our husbands by keeping our sexual desires and (arousal) for them only. Because, friend, the place where families are torn apart is not at the dinner table or in the living room. The place where families fall apart is in the bedroom. The words that we say to each other outside of the walls of our bedrooms are simply a reflection of the level of intimacy AND RESPECT that takes place when we are alone and vulnerable with our spouse.

And personally, if my marriage is sacred and holy and the foundation on which my family and children stand? Then the last thing I’m going to do is invite the imagery of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey to play in my mind while I’m alone with my husband. My heart and my mind should be his alone when it comes to sexual intimacy.

Wanna know what’s really sexy? I’m going to begin to spice up my marriage by talking highly of my husband to my children and to others. I’m going to show him that I love him by respecting him as a man. And then? On top of all of that? I’m going to love him intimately. Yes. Intimately. Because sex was designed by God as a gift for me and my husband. It’s not taboo. It’s a gift that has been stolen, twisted, and turned into something that is the opposite of safe and beautiful. Which is exactly what this movie has done. It has taken the vulnerable and beautiful thing that is married sex and entertained the world with a man who uses sex to control, manipulate and introduce pain.

And yet we say, “No big deal.”

So, here’s my challenge. My apparently, long-winded challenge. Let’s take back sex. No. Seriously. Instead of watching Christian Grey have sex with Anastasia Steele? Try this. Have sex with your own husband. Spend the evening in your own bedroom remembering what being in love felt like when you first got married. Yup. Sex is good and important.

And friend? Your husband and your marriage are worth honoring… and you know what? I think deep down… you agree with me.

As always,

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