Treacherous trap

"Flirtation" is such a precious word. It almost seems to have petticoats and frills.

But flirtation is treachery. The person who is flirting is setting a trap. Her goal is to get you to desire her, and to be miserable in your desire. She holds out golden apples in silver settings, but you cannot have them.

I'm writing this post because a married man I know saw a small photo of a flirtatious woman that accompanied an article in a magazine (a Christian magazine, no less), and he was awake all night thinking about her. In other words, this was not even a direct hit --- demonstrating the power of flirtation even once removed.

For my money, the best defense against a flirt is to see it through God's eyes:

"...She appeared to be contorting her all but invisible face and writhing her smokelike body in a quite meaningless fashion. At last I came to the conclusion-incredible as it seemed-that she supposed herself still capable of attracting them and was trying to do so. She was a thing that had become incapable of conceiving conversation save as a means to that end. If a corpse already liquid with decay had arisen from the coffin, smeared its gums with lipstick, and attempted a flirtation, the result could not have been more appalling. In the end she muttered 'Stupid creatures,' and turned back to the bus" (C.S.Lewis, The Great Divorce).

And the best defense against becoming a flirt, based on 1 Timothy 5:1, is to treat men your age like brothers and younger men like sons.