tim tebow, one direction, the beatles and michael landon, part one

Well! You are here for one of two reasons. Number one, you missed me. Or, number two, you couldn't resist seeing what this post was about. I mean, it has Tim Tebow in the title!!! =) I get this really bad feeling that you're about to be disappointed. Oh well! Moving on...

One of my favorite people in the whole world (you know who you are) thinks I'm weird. You want to know why? It's because, when she posted a picture of Tim Tebow online, I said, "not impressed."

I can almost hear the collective gasp. (for the record, that isn't the picture she posted).

And then, I posted this picture with the simple caption, in love. =)

I mean, come on, what's not to love about that face? And honey, if you watch him in Bonanza...Well, let's just say he gives a new meaning to the word swoon. =) (Okay, I'll move on....)

So then, my friend and I had this conversation:

You can learn several things from the above conversation. Number one, I obviously have a Michael Landon obsession. (Actually, technically, it's a Little Joe Cartwright obsession, not a Michael Landon obsession). Number two, my sweet adopted-by-me younger sister/friend obviously thinks Tim Tebow belongs to her. Number three, I'm obviously the opposite of basically every other girl in America.

This isn't the first time this fact has thrown itself in my face. A few weeks ago I was on a date with my 25 year old brother. He tortured me on the way home by making me listen to Justin Bieber. (Insert gag...) I cannot, repeat, CANNOT stand listening to him. (Michael, if you are reading this, please don't lecture me. I can't help it. I just can't. Let me go listen to my Fleet Band of Foxy Horses. ; )
As we were riding along, me pretending not to hate every minute of it, and him singing along, he was struck with a sudden realization that caused him to turn the music down. (Insert my hallelujahs).

He said, (and I quote), "Jennifer! This is like the only car in America with an 18 year old girl and a 25 year old guy in it, and the guy likes Bieber more than she does!!" We laughed hysterically at the funniness of the situation. It was really funny. Me and Michael in a car, him knowing every word and me gagging over Justin Bieber. =) I'm weird.

Take One Direction. Is it bad that I had to find out what all their names are? Seriously, I didn't know what Louis' or Liam's names were.

I just don't understand the attraction. Niall is the only one that is actually {semi} good-looking. I listened to several of their iTunes demos before writing this, and again, not impressed. (Sorry). And yet, they are supposed to be the thing. Kinda like these fellows were back in the day:

Come on now, drag your eyes away from Paul.

I'm just wondering what our world is coming to.

When I was 12-16, I wasn't looking at pictures of shirtless guys. (Well, heck, I still don't look at pictures of shirtless guys!!) But, there are so many girls out there who do.

When I was 12-16, my friends and I didn't obsess over celebrities like girls do nowadays. We got crushes on real guys.

When I was 12-16, my friends and I didn't listen to music because of the way the people looked...we listened to music that we liked.

It bothers me that it has become okay for girls to have over-the-top celebrity crushes, looking at innapropriate pictures and things like that. It bothers me. It bothers me that when I said something about not being impressed by Tim Tebow because of his posing shirtless, I was told "Tim Tebow is a Christian, Jennifer Mole!!!"

I'm not saying that if you have a celebrity crush, that you aren't pure. I think I've made it quite clear that Michael Landon is where it's at. That's not wrong. That's normal. It's totally normal to have crushes. But most of these girls aren't stopping with a crush. They are moving on to looking at inappropriate pictures, or making Styles their last name on all of their accounts, or saying that they own Tim Tebow.  That's when it stops being an innocent crush.

I started this blog to encourage and help young women. I promised that I would be honest. I fully intend to do just that. If I can't speak up about what's on my heart, then this blog will just have to go. (Y'all don't want that, right?) To be totally honest, this post has been brewing in the back of my mind for a while, but I didn't want to write it. It's always easiest to sit back and not say the hard stuff. But this friend of mine is always writing posts that are so honest. She totally isn't afraid of what God has her writing down. It pushed me to write this.

I'm not judging amyone, and I wasn't angry with my friend. Heaven forbid. I've sinned. I've messed up big time. I've given my heart away. But, girls, we've gotta be careful. We've gotta protect ourselves. How would you feel if you knew that the guy you are going to marry was looking at girls in bikinis? That makes me feel kinda sick.

If I had to try and tie this all together into one point, it would be this: the gospel. The gospel really is just the good news that Jesus died for us and He loves us. Because He loves us, we can't live in sin anymore. We have to be holy because He is holy. He is now our high calling. It doesn't matter what else we have or do, because now we have Him. We don't need anything else. We don't need a boyfriend or a good job or the perfect wedding or 8 adorable kiddos or Tim Tebow. We need Jesus.

Looking at pictures of guys won't fulfill you. It may feel good in the moment. It might make you get butterflies and dream crazy dreams. It'll feel good. But it won't last. Jesus lasts. He never goes away. His love never fails.


If you struggle with this or if you have questions/comments, I'm here. You can leave your thoughts in the comment box down below, or if you feel more comfortable, just email me at: betterthatway@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. I love you, friends! Stay strong!


(this was part one. yep, there is more of this to come).