Oh, J-Lo

Since Extreme Home Makeover no longer airs on Sunday nights, I’m at a loss with what to watch. If Brian has his way, Pickers or Hog Hunters or some other crazy show is on the TV (which my girls also love).

Last week, Brian was not home and I had control of the remote. As I was flipping around the channels, I saw that the AMAs were on, so Caroline and I watched. And then Hope came home and watched, too.

First of all, let me just say I’m not going to do a post about the loud music that doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t mind most music—I even sing along (although I don’t carry a tune well and usually get the words wrong). Plus, there are many artists that I really like to see—don’t really care about their acceptance speeches (everybody thanks God and their parents), but love to watch them perform or interact with others as they host. Even if I’ve never heard of them before (like Pitbull—I know, I know—he’s probably really famous and I’ve been under a rock), I’m open to new tunes.

Before Hope got home, Caroline and I were watching Jennifer Lopez perform her first song. My heart just dropped, y’all. I know she’s had a tough year—and I don’t read all the trash about why she got divorced—that’s her personal business. But, when she started dancing and her costume got skimpier and skimpier, my sweet 7 year old asked me, “Mommy, isn’t that inappropriate?” As much as I wanted to change the channel, I didn’t. We discussed how some people make choices that are not necessarily the wise ones (all the while in my head, I was thinking that J-Lo probably thinks she IS making the wise choice—she looks GREAT after having twins and is one of the most beautiful women in the world).

Then Hope came home and I found out she had been watching it at her friend’s house. And my heart sank even more. I wish I had been sitting beside her as she was watching to see what she thought about it (especially since I could’ve added in some remarks about why we don’t dance like that with boys). We talked about how I hoped J-Lo knew God, but how she wasn’t showing the world she does by the way she presented herself. This was a tricky conversation. My job is not to judge or condemn others—or teach my daughters to do that. But my job is to help equip them to make wise choices and to know the difference between appropriate and not appropriate.

We did have a good conversation and I’m glad that I let my girls be exposed to music that’s not always appropriate. They know when we need to change the radio station and more importantly, WHY we need to change it. I would rather navigate these conversations when they are under my roof than when they are in a room full of teenagers or at a college party--and there are no other trusted adults around. Even though they are hard. And part of my heart breaks.

And afterward, I found myself not only praying for God to protect my little girls’ hearts, but I prayed the same for J-Lo’s kiddos. I hope that when they are 7 years old, they will have a positive role model in their life—who will help them to know the difference between appropriate and not appropriate. I pray that it’s J-Lo herself.

And I prayed for all the other girls’ who look up to Jennifer Lopez and didn't see anything wrong with her moves or clothing—that their eyes would be open to right and wrong and that they would have someone in their life to walk through those decisions with them.