Not only is October celebrated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October is also celebrated as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Lu-Ann Farrar of the Lexington Herald-Leader has a Question of Faith segment of the newspaper. For this month, she asked about movies that offer the best life lessons. I wrote on Tyler Perry's, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman". See the below excerpt from this article:
Lu-Ann Farrar, Manager, Lexington-Herald Leader wrote:
Therese Warrick, Sisters Road to Freedom, Lexington: My favorite movies are Imitation of Life and To Sir, With Love, from my childhood and youth, and now Diary of a Mad Black Woman. These movies offer the best life lessons (love for family, love for God, forgiveness, believing that one can do all things).
However, the best life lesson is revealed in Diary of a Mad Black Woman. This movie portrayed a Christian marriage that fell apart due to greed and adultery, but most importantly, it showed the power of forgiveness.
The lesson we get is that no matter what we have done to someone or what someone has done to us, we must forgive, just as Christ has forgiven us. Movies portray spiritual life not only by exposing the wrongs and the strife and struggles that families encounter, but by showing how to deal with the strife and the struggles. Movies now have pastors, choirs and spiritual counselors getting significant parts. We see people expressing their love for God, praying and testifying about deliverance by God, and people showing forgiveness and love despite what has happened to them.
This movie also deals with abuse within the marriage, which is taking place in numerous Christian marriages today. It is important for women to keep in contact with their families, important for women to recognize abuse verbal/emotional, physical, financial, spiritual) and seek help, to not be ashamed, but most importantly to seek immediate help. Abuse can get violent from emotional/psychological to physical (as we see in this movie) and can even result in death.
Some statistics for awareness:
Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Source: Commonwealth Fund survey, 1998
Studies by the Surgeon General's office reveal that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44, more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and cancer deaths combined. Other research has found that half of all women will experience some form of violence from their partners during marriage, and that more than one-third are battered repeatedly every year. Source: Journal of American Medical Association, 1990.
May God bless women and men everywhere suffering from any kind of abuse, in the name of Jesus.
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