A Good Woman’s Guide to the 21st Century: MakeItMAD.com

Hey everyone!

Today I am directing all of our readers over to Max Dubinsky‘s blog: MakeItMad.

Last summer, Max wrote A Gentleman’s Guide to the 21st Century. For me, it was a massive slap in the face. I had forgotten that men like this were around. I knew that I’d started to settle & I’d already started working on that, but this reminded me that it was an all or nothing deal.

I was raised with high expectations for men, and in high school was blessed to be around extraordinarily good guys. No, seriously. I lived in a bubble that most of you will never experience. A bubble where all of my guy friends held the door open for us girls, took the lead at the dance parties we threw for every single one of our birthdays (and kept their hands in the right places), dropped all profanity when we were in the room, and never tried to ‘get with us’ unless they had a damn good date planned. I successfully made it through high school without ever having even kissed a guy.

Fast forward three or four years and I had been completely and entirely convinced that these guys were gone. I couldn’t tell you how many guys I’d kissed. I’d have to ask you the definition of kissed if you asked that question. Did it mean making out, or did it include the intoxicated kisses around the room too? I remember sitting on the edge of my bed at one point and piecing this thought together: “I know what I’m worth. The man that deserves me does not exist. So, I’ll just take what I want from him, and I won’t feel guilty. I can’t get what I need so I’ll just take what I want. What feels good. For ME.”

For the next year I acted on that thought. I had moments of sanity and of clarity, nights I “half cheated” because he was “real cheating,” weeks I tried to do better, weeks I did much more damage than normal, and days I broke and knew this wasn’t what it was supposed to look like.

Those years? Those years are over. They’re done. Forever. For the last year, I’ve been in intense heart rehab. I’ve been surrounded by incredible women whose first question for me when I come to them a mess is, “Lauren. How’s your heart?”

My breaking point was realizing that the two greatest lies I ever started believing are these:

That God is not good, and that no men are good.

If you believe just one of those two lies, it’s enough to ruin you.

I decided to believe again that God is good. And that I will spend the rest of my life with a man that I WANT. That I’ve always wanted. Not a man that I’m settling for, because I’ve learned that there’s “nothing better.”

So. All this being said, I am honored to write A Good Woman’s Guide to the 21st Century with Max. Please take a moment and go read it.

He’s helped me become better, and I’d like to think I’m helping him do the same. This is what it’s supposed to look like. And I love it.

.