Should I stop staring at beautiful girls?

  • Thread starter Thread starter iaskquestions
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I

iaskquestions

Guest
Actually I’m quite stumped by this verse

“**Turn away your eyes **from a shapely woman, and do not look intently at beauty belonging to another; many have been misled by a woman’s beauty, and by it passion is kindled like a fire.” (Sirach 9:8)

How do I apply this verse to my life, especially in today’s world where almost every woman is shapely and beautiful! 🙂
 
iaskquestions said:
Actually I’m quite stumped by this verse

“**Turn away your eyes **from a shapely woman, and do not look intently at beauty belonging to another; many have been misled by a woman’s beauty, and by it passion is kindled like a fire.” (Sirach 9:8)

How do I apply this verse to my life, especially in today’s world where almost every woman is shapely and beautiful! 🙂
Click to expand...
Since you admit that “shapely women” are present then the admonition applies.

What do you think “look intently at” means?
 
If you are looking at a beautiful woman and simply seeing her as a beautiful person, a daughter of God, and not picturing her as an object for your visual (and otherwise) gratification, that is fine.

However, all too often, a ‘look’ starts out as that simple appreciation but quickly turns into “she is pretty–no, she’s HOT. . .wonder what she would be like. . .sure would like to. . .” and segues into lust, sexual fantasy which becomes more indulged in, completely changing the simple “what a pretty person” into “sure would like to ‘have’ her’. Or, even if not so far, being so hung up on thinking about the woman’s APPEARANCE that one neglects everything else about her. . .her soul and her mind–just to fixate on that appearance.”

Thus the Scripture reminds us first that ‘looking too much’ on physical beauty can kindle lust. . .and second, that even focusing too much on APPEARANCE leads us to objectify the woman as being ‘only’ beautiful and blinding us as to the totality of the woman in question.
 
iaskquestions said:
Actually I’m quite stumped by this verse

“**Turn away your eyes **from a shapely woman, and do not look intently at beauty belonging to another; many have been misled by a woman’s beauty, and by it passion is kindled like a fire.” (Sirach 9:8)

How do I apply this verse to my life, especially in today’s world where almost every woman is shapely and beautiful! 🙂
Click to expand...
My first reaction to reading your title question was “yes…you are probably creeping them out!” 😛

Seriously though…
  1. don’t stare - it’s not polite
  2. eyes up - look at their faces when you are talking to them.
  3. If you are in a location during Mass or another event where you are stationary and you can’t help but look at a woman’s bottom…move to another location - try the front row if you have to, but look at the cantor/reader’s faces.
Now, other than that, it is okay to admire the beauty that God put on this earth - and boy did He place some beauty on this earth! 🙂 If you let such admiration turn to lust, then you have something to confess. That is what the passage is about. If looking at a beautiful, shapely woman causes you to lust, then it is better to avert your eyes.
 
The key phrase is “look intently”…In the context of this verse it means staring with lustful thoughts. But you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t notice a beautiful woman, and how could you ever fall in love if you didn’t… look?

The writer is warning against lust. I might also add that between women there’s the problem of envy, and admiration of superficial beauty.
  • Westy
 
I’ve never heard of a book in the bible called “Sirach”.
 
All Bibles had Sirach up until about 150 years ago then they took out about 7 books of the Bible leaving it with 66 books. Look at any antique Bible and you will see a Bible with all the books in it.

In the United States you will see mostly 66 book Bibles since the 7 books conflict with some non-catholic doctrine they removed the books so they wouldn’t have so many problems with the Bible.

Yes, don’t stare at beautiful girls, you can notice them say hi and notice they are beautiful. But be very careful, if you are prone to lust as most men under 120 years old are, be very careful.

Appreciation for beauty is natural, just as it is easy to appreciate one beer(substitute favorite drink here) or anything else, but temptation is always around the corner.

In Christ
Scylla
 
Originally posted by Starwynd****
I’ve never heard of a book in the bible called “Sirach”.

Click to expand...

Sirach appears between the Book of Wisdom and the Book of Isaiah.
 
How do you interpret Sirach 9:2
“Do not give yourself to a woman and let her trample down your strength.” ?:confused:
 
Yes, you should. Not only could it lead you to lustful thoughts, it’s also very rude to stare at people.
 
iaskquestions said:
How do you interpret Sirach 9:2
“Do not give yourself to a woman and let her trample down your strength.” ?:confused:
Click to expand...
Off topic 😃

About the looking at girls thing, if you see a beautiful woman in a situation where you are finding it difficult to stop staring, start praying to God thanking Him for the woman’s beauty and asking Him to watch over and protect her as His child. Bit difficult to lust after someone you’re praying for 🙂

I heard a story the other day - one of the early saints, St Pelagia, started out as a prostitute. One day she walked by a group of Christian priests/bishops, all of whom looked away, except one.

He admonished the others, saying something like ‘did you not notice her beauty? I certainly did, and thank God for it, but it is a shame that such beauty should be used only to serve men’s lusts.’ She heard the comment, turned around and came back because of it, converted and became a saint.

What a great attitude.
 
MrS said:
No sex before the big game?
Click to expand...
:rotfl:

I will add to that these important insights from Dr. Strangelove:
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I… no, no. I don’t, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen, tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first… become… well, develop this theory?
General Jack D. Ripper: **Well, I, uh… I… I… first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
**Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: **Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue… a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I… I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.
**Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: **I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh… women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh… I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
**Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
General Jack D. Ripper: But I… I do deny them my essence.
Click to expand...
 
Stop staring, yes. Looking briefly and appreciating God’s marvelous creation of the ladyfolk…very OK. 👍
 
iaskquestions said:
How do you interpret Sirach 9:2
“Do not give yourself to a woman and let her trample down your strength.” ?:confused:
Click to expand...
RSV-CE: “Do not give yourself to a woman so that she gains mastery of your strength.”

Don’t give yourself to ANYONE, other than God Himself, such that they gain mastery of your strength! 🙂

The point of Sir-9:2 mentioning a woman is that it’s a reference to allowing lust to dominate one’s abilities (strengths).

This is just another example of the “don’t let lust command you!” theme, of which the OP was an example.
 
iaskquestions said:
Could you please elaborate?
Click to expand...
Sir-9:1-10 is about “Chastity and Family Life”. (As per the “Navarre Bible”)

You’ll have to be more specific in what you want elaborated, as it’s really rather obvious what it is that the whole of chapter 9 is about (Chastity, Relationships, and a little bit of Good Governent9:17-10:5).
 
iaskquestions said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CatsAndDogs
RSV-CE: “Do not give yourself to a woman so that she gains mastery of your strength.”

I am not able to understand this statement at all.
Click to expand...
It means, don’t allow a lustful “want” of yours take away your ability to do what is right to do, because by doing what is right you might LOSE what you are lusting after.

In the case of a man lusting after a women who takes away his strength, she (could) take away his ability to be righteous (do what is right in the sight of God) because he is afraid that being righteous might drive her away.

Lust creates an idol out of the lusted-after, and worshipping that (or any) idol is a big no-no.

Don’t be quite so literalistic about what you are reading. Try to understand the literal meaning (what the author meant), and not the “word-for-word string-of-words dictionary meaning” of scripture (or any OTHER writing for that matter).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top