OK…
I don’t know if you all caught this or not, but personally, I am *really curious* to see how the “sex strike” that the women in Togo have just declared. In order to get their current president to resign, the women of that country have called for all ladies to withhold sex from their husbands or partners for the period of one week.
Honestly, I found some of the comments about the strike, one that *just started on Saturday*, to be pretty intriguing:
“‘I do agree that we women have to observe this sex strike but I know my husband will not let me complete it. He may agree at first, but as far as I know him, he will change overnight,’ Judith Agbetoglo said. ‘So I don’t believe I can do the one-week sex strike. Otherwise, I will have serious issues with him. He likes that too much.’
Though the call for a sex strike seemed to please many women, some men, including heads of opposition parties and human rights groups in the anti-Gnassingbe coalition, did not believe it would be a success.
‘One week sex strike is too much,’ said Fabre of the National Alliance for Change, who suggested a shorter period, amid laughter from the crowd at the demonstration. ‘Let’s go for only two days’.”
First, I thought about how there are *quite a few wives* who write me who are good to give their husbands “due affection” (I Corinthians 7:3) once a month, let alone once a week, so the fact that some people in Togo can’t go *two days* without it, if it’s *mutual affection* and not forced obligation, I find that to be totally endearing. And pretty doggone healthy!
Yet on a grander scale, I thought about how confident these women must be to think/feel that they have *so much power* that withholding sex for a week can actually *seat a president*. I had a woman in my life who used to say, “You’re sitting on a million dollars and giving it away for a Happy Meal.” *Words to live by*.
It’s a pretty radical concept, but I’m pretty sure that’s just the reason why it’s making international news. You know, I used to tell the girls that I mentor that there are a lot of guys who don’t get married because, in their minds, they don’t have to. So many women are willing to be their “wives” without a commitment. These ladies cook and clean and share bills and have sex all without any kind of covenant in place. So, rather than giving them *more* of all of that, what would life be like if we, as single women, actually held that back? What would men do if *all women* said, “You have to marry me to get all of this”? Brings a whole new meaning to “Do not cast pearls before swine or give what is holy to the dogs” (Matthew 7:6), doesn’t it? Not because men are pigs or dogs, but because it takes *real spiritual maturity* to see the value of *not acting married…until you are married*.
And on an even bigger level than that, as much as we talk about how much (some) men degrade women by watching porn, going to strip clubs, hiring prostitutes, sleeping around, what would this world look like if the women (who were not forced into certain sexual strongholds) actually said, “No. I’m not shooting that video”, “No. I’m not taking off my clothes for your amusement”, “No. You can’t pay me to sleep with you” and “No. I won’t have sex with you while you’re having sex with other people”? What would happen if we had the same kind of confidence in our sexuality as those women in Togo seem to? If we’d stop acting like lowering our value is “just the way it is” and decided to take our female sexuality back by waiting to share it until it’s right? By waiting until a man enters into a covenant with us?
Like I said, I will be following the Togo story to see how it all develops.
In the meantime, if you are in a place of sexual compromise, I encourage you to remember just how *fearfully and wonderfully* (Psalm 139:14) made that you *really are*. So much so that God saw fit for a man to *marry you* (Genesis 2:24-25) to use any of his physical senses to sexually enjoy you.
And ladies, the Togo women are right— that’s *a lot* of power!