This young man may not look like a goddess, but you can bet he is.

Can you believe this 16 year-old boy has raised over $60,000 to overcome domestic abuse? Truly amazing, isn’t it?

To satisfy a high school course requirement Nick Jaeger decided to help out at a shelter for abuse victims. Then after learning first hand what victims of abuse experience, he went from moving furniture and painting walls to raising serious money.

As he says in this article from Affect Magazine, “I’ve been so lucky in my life. The relationships I’ve had are all positive, and I have a family I can trust. Domestic violence makes it so that you can’t have these relationships… relationships that I’ve taken for granted.”

My last novel, No River Too Wide, deals with the violent abuse of Janine Stoddard by her husband, but I also celebrate men like Ethan Martin and Adam Pryor, who would never hurt a woman and who support Janine in her struggle to move on.

Isn’t the best way to combat domestic violence to raise boys like Nick who learn early in their lives to respect girls and women and never to hurt them? Let’s appreciate the boys and men  who “get it,” who support and embrace all the women in their lives for who they are, not for who they want them to be.

Who are the male “goddesses” in your life?