I knew one day our six-year-old son would notice the female body. Today was that day.

During a visit to the mall, we came upon a lingerie store with a larger-than-life poster of a bra model with even larger boobies (and a teenie weeny bra).

I tried to distract him by pointing out the toy store right around the corner. But he ran over to the poster and stood underneath the tee-tahs. His eyes had a look on them that told me “heaven” was right here.

I saw this as a huge, triple-D HUGE, teachable moment. I walked over, passing chuckling adults, and stood by my son. “She’s beautiful isn’t she buddy?”

“Yeah, Mom. Ohhh yeah.” He eyes stayed glued on the boobs.

(Good grief!) I knelt next to him.

“Did you know God intended for this lady to only show her breasts to her husband? But instead she’s showing herself to the whole mall.”

His face fell.

“Women model like this for different reasons, but sometimes because they don’t have much self-esteem or self-respect.”

“That’s really sad,” he replied.

“But guess what? As a man, you have the opportunity to show her the esteem and respect that she deserves. So the next time you see this lady at the mall, or another woman like this on TV, you can turn your head or close your eyes. And when you do this, you are telling her you don’t have to look at her like that to see her beauty. Because women are beautiful because God made them, not because they show their skin.”

Modern day chivalry is exactly this: Showing women the esteem and respect they should have but don’t always think they deserve.

A lot of women can mistake looks of attention for looks of love. Therefore some will choose to wear revealing clothes or give themselves away in an attempt to feel valued. Women need to know that their value comes from being a child of their Creator, Who doesn’t make mistakes.

A few days after our adventure at the mall, our son was watching TV when a commercial came on. The female model wore close to nothing. I glanced over at him and he already had his hands over his eyes. He then looked at me and gave me a “thumbs up.”

I won’t be able to change the way all women feel about themselves. But I believe I can change the way many women feel.  And this change just might start by teaching my boys to look away.