Rose

She dreams of being treated like a queen

She wants to be known

Wants to be seen…as a human being

She longs to be treasured

Not measured on her features and appearance

She knows she’s meant to be more

Than an object of lust

For men who leer

It makes her flesh crawl

Every time they get near her

But the reality is

That it’s all she’s ever known

Papa was a rolling stone

And when he was home

He was a boulder of destruction

Tearin’ up the house in a drunken rage

And hittin’ her and mama in the face

For missing a simple instruction –

While he’s still cussin’, still fussin’

It was disgusting…

She had to get away

But in her haste to find safety

She started looking for love

In all of the wrong places

Many a days wasted

On suitors that shouldn’t suit her

Because all they wanted to do

Was use her up, then lose her

Sugar, spice and everything nice

Is replaced by sex, deceit, and deadly vices

To those who know her

She’s a rose of a different kind

Not altogether lovely

But fine enough for a good time

And her new man don’t mind sharin’

“‘Cause I bet those dudes will pay top dollar

As hard as they be starin’”

Now she’s out there as eye candy

As her reality sours

The breath of strange men heat up her neck

And she’s getting paid by the hour

She’s been rejected so long

That she resolves to accept it

Believing that it’s better

To play by her own rules

Than to go through life dejected

She says, “The situation is screwed up

And since no one else seems to give a f---

I’m gonna make the most

Out of my station in life;

Make some money and get high – bottoms up”

Truth is she’s feeling stuck

And her identity is in shambles

A rose that’s lost her petals

Instead of a lily among the brambles

Built for love and dominion

But worn down by others’ opinions

She fails to receive the mantle

For which she was attentively intended

New day, new city

While the nights all look the same

And she cries herself to sleep

Because the showers can’t remove the shame

My sister, you are more than the sum of your deeds

Don’t listen to the deceivers

You’re more than just a perverted history

Of a long line of leavers

You were created with dignity and purpose

For a lover who sticks closer than a brother

He wants nothin’ but the rose

And gave it all to show that you’re worth it

(cf. John 8:1-11)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Trafficking the Girl Next Door

During the 1980s, mothers used the phrase "stranger danger" to caution their children about the possibility of kidnappings. It was the idea of seeing your missing child's photo on the side of a milk carton that caused many U.S. families to warn their kids about abductions. The possibility of human trafficking wasn't even on most parents' radar screen.

Yet during the same time period, a 13-year-old Miami girl became one of the countless children to fall prey to a sex trafficking scheme. Only in recent years have U.S. officials realized the trend is just as alarming at home as it is abroad. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, human trafficking ranks second only to drug trafficking as the fastest growing criminal industry worldwide. And half of those trafficked are children.
In 1985, Katariina Rosenblatt, her teenage brother, and their mother left their South Florida home to escape Kat's abusive father. Katariina's mother was trying to hold down a job while caring for her children. The family lived out of a Miami Beach hotel, where the kids spent most days unsupervised at the swimming pool. There, Katariina was approached by Mary, a sophisticated 19-year-old who took an interest in the young teen. "She was everything I thought I wanted to be," Katariina says. "Thin, pretty, blond hair, and blue eyes."
The sexual, verbal, and physical abuse Katariina had endured from her father left her damaged and vulnerable, a weakness Mary quickly sensed. Offering her friendship and sisterly advice, Mary began telling Katariina about local men who would take care of her, give her money for food, and offer fatherly love. In reality, Mary was a recruiter for a local child trafficking ring.
"The devil doesn't come with a pitchfork," Katariina says. "He's much more deceptive. For me, he came in the form of a girl in a red bikini."
Led by Mary, Katariina soon found herself sequestered in a room with a 65-year-old man who attempted to purchase her, still a virgin, for $550. Refusing the marijuana she was offered, Katariina narrowly escaped the exchange and fled back to her hotel room. It was the first in a series of trafficking scenarios she would face as a young teen, and the only one she would manage to escape unscathed.

 God's Whispers

 In the following years Katariina became ensnared in a series of trafficking exchanges, all unbeknownst to her mother. In one instance, she went to a sleepover at a friend's whose father was a pedophile and worked as a trafficker. Katariina was taken to an apartment-style brothel in a neighboring county and exploited by a 40-year-old man who fostered her cocaine addiction and began making her dependent on him and the future men who would exploit her in exchange for drugs, food, and temporary affection.
Continued...

via todayschristianwoman.com