When you hear the phrases Ugg boots, white caramel mocha frappuccino, yoga pants, etc... what do you automatically think of??? One thing comes to my mind.... White girls.
I've always heard that phrase and laughed about it until I was said to have been having a 'white girl' moment the other day. For some reason, I was extremely offended and so I had to take some time to think about why. Why is that so offensive when it should be something funny and light-hearted? I took some time to think about this and I think I came up with a pretty good answer that says a lot about our culture and the people living in it.
I believe the phrase 'white girl' is offensive because it refers to the girl as being extremely shallow. I'd like to draw your attention to the word shallow. I think this is illness that has affected our text and snapchat centered generation very hard! When was the last time you sat and had a conversation with someone about something that truly mattered??? Most often we go about our lives and talk about what we are going to wear, going to eat, what movies are good or bad, how much homework we have to do, how stressed we are... you get the picture. How much of that stuff matters longer than an hour? A day? A week? Five years??? So often we only get to know our friends on a very shallow level. We could probably tell you what kind of food they like or what movies they enjoy but we couldn't mention what they are struggling with, what their goals and dreams are, what they believe in terms or politics and religion or anything like that. I believe this illness is only going to get worse before it gets better.
Personally, I get tired of talking about the same things. I feel like I get stuck in a maze with no way out. It's the same thing day in and day out. God calls us to have friends that will strengthen us... He says "as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17) God doesn't tell us to sit idly and talk about the weather.... NO! He says to sharpen one another. I dont know about you, but to me that kind of sounds scary. It sounds painful and hard. God didnt ever promise that it would be easy but I do believe he says it will be worth it. Let's take this challenge and run with it. Let's go beyond our typical everyday conversations and build relationships that will matter with people beyond the next week or even the next year. Let's stop labeling each other by what we see on the outside. I do enjoy starbucks frappuccinos and yoga pants and I am a white girl but that does not make me shallow in the least. Let's stop degrading each other and start building each other up.... sharpening each other. It will not be easy and it may be uncomfortable but we need to live in that tension for in those moments is where the real growth happens. That is where life long friendships are made.
