http://www.projectinspired.com/girl-talk/

What is Project Inspired?

Project Inspired is written by model Nicole Weider, who believes it’s time for a Hollywood voice to take the best interests of young women to heart. From relationship and style advice to inspirational quotes to a real look at celebrities in the media, Nicole draws from her own experiences to make the message clear to young women: Be a person of value and confidence – be your own best self – through leading a true Christian life. Need a good place to start? Try here!

]]> http://faithbellaire.org/2012/05/16/just-for-grandparents/ Wed, 16 May 2012 14:05:19 +0000 faithbellaire http://faithbellaire.org/2012/05/16/just-for-grandparents/ http://faithbellaire.org/2012/05/14/take-stock-in-our-high-schoolers/ Mon, 14 May 2012 16:00:04 +0000 faithbellaire http://faithbellaire.org/2012/05/14/take-stock-in-our-high-schoolers/ http://faithbellaire.org/2012/05/05/faith-family-talent-show/ Sat, 05 May 2012 16:36:33 +0000 faithbellaire http://faithbellaire.org/2012/05/05/faith-family-talent-show/ http://authorsgrace.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/project-inspired-a-fresh-example-for-young-women-10-2/ Fri, 04 May 2012 03:27:36 +0000 Author'sGrace http://authorsgrace.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/project-inspired-a-fresh-example-for-young-women-10-2/ Hey girls, are you tired of hearing about the only way to get real love is to give sex now, like Cosmo teaches?

Follow ex-model Nicole Weider, and the website Project Inspired for a wiser purer way to to start your adult life. Unlike Cosmo, Nicole’s website reminds young women that their beauty comes from within, not externally, and from what the media and culture tells you how you should look and act. Project Inspired actually cares about each of you, as the whole person, not just the external one. Check it out, and may God bless you and may the Author’s Grace be with you on your way.

http://www.projectinspired.com/

Now, there is some messianism in this, as Elijah plays the role of harbinger of the Messiah. There is also a connection to Passover: we set a place for Eliahu haNavi and open the door for him. But I must tell you something you already know: I am not a messianist. I leave that to our ultra-Orthodox cousins in general and Habad in particular.

No, what strikes me as important is the piece of Malachi’s message about parents and children. Can we extrapolate from this that even then the hearts of children were NOT turned toward their parents and that the hearts of parents were not always turned toward their children?  

The rebellious child is addressed in Torah and throughout the Prophets and Writings, there are tales of children gone awry, run amok, deviously challenging authority, parental wisdom and respect. I don’t believe for a minute that the Fifth Commandment in God’s top ten got there by accident. Nor do I believe that the holiness code we read on Yom Kippur contains the phrase that “every person shall respect their parents” as a measure of one’s piety was placed in the text as an afterthought.

There has been a more than just a dynamic rub between generations for, well, more generations than we can number. As parents and children, we all know this to varying degrees. I know parents who have given up on their children. The friction is just too great. I also know parents who remain intrusive and possessive even when the children are no longer children. Being a parent never ends until the last movement of our hands, but even beyond the grave, we have a powerful presence and influence – sometimes for the good, sometimes for the not-so-good.

Shabbat HaGadol has always come to teach a lesson about social responsibility. Hopefully, that message is one of the ideals we impart whether our kids are little or grown. I have two daughters. They are both strong young women with a deeply ingrained sense of outrage at injustice, inequity and prejudice. That’s the way they were raised. Alas, it doesn’t always stick, this impulse to do the right thing, say the right words, follow the right path. That reality does not bestow the license to give up. Quite the contrary – it is the authorization and the warrant to press with words and deeds until the eternal, immutable, sacred values of our people find purchase in the next generation.

The hoodie has become such a symbol in the eyes of the beholder – especially store owners and police – that African American teenagers are urged by their parents not to wear one lest they immediately become targets and suspects. It is a tenuous and perilous stroll through life that young Black males take. I can relate, sort of.

For a brief period of time I decided – in some inexplicable fit of religious fervor – to wear a kipah, a yarmulke, the Jewish skull cap, not just in prayer but 24-7. In a reputedly sophisticated but really very small town, I invited strange looks and noted with amusement that people began to speak to me in louder, slower tones. I was clearly a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land, though I had never heard Santa Barbara described in quite that way. Whether the “otherness” was too much to bear or I just came to my progressive Jewish senses, it’s hard to say. This was a long time ago. Eventually, the kipah came off, not so much because of self-consciousness nor because I was trying to make an assertive identity statement, but it just wasn’t a good theological fit with my head.

Alas, when a Black kid takes off his hoodie, he’s still Black. We engage in the most dangerous sort of naiveté when we aver that our nation has passed the point of racial hatred. A roiling, primitive trope bubbles just beneath the surface of civility in words and deeds. There should be no doubt that the over-heated rhetoric of this mean political season has only added fuel to the fire, neatly and effortlessly dividing the world into us and them. Any and every minority is at risk. You don’t have to wear a hoodie to see it in the eyes of others.