iheart

~Luke 6:45
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

People always say, "What goes up, must come down." It's the same with your mind. "What goes in, must come out." That's why Paul says...

~Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Nikki (Comatose) gave me permission to share some things from a post on her blog:

I really feel convicted about my standards when it comes to books, movies, TV, and music. Whenever there's something, even a little thing, in a book or whatever that I know is NOT something God would like it sticks out painfully and that's the only thing I remember when I think of it. And I know that once I let myself like a certain book or movie I REALLY like it. So should I read this series, or not?

I know you're probably thinking, "Duh! Not!" Well actually you're probably not thinking that; forgive me if that's the case. :P But that's what I'm thinking. I remember my youth pastor saying, "Don't settle for anything but God's best." I really want to do that, but it's so hard in this world where almost everything I like has things in it that I KNOW God frowns out. Princess Leia's practically naked in Episode 6 of Star Wars. But the movies are still a good example of good and evil, right? Star Trek is fun... Except for all this cursing, misusing God's name, murdering, fornication, and sometimes partial nudity.

How can I like something so much when it has so many bad things in it? It's like every book, every movie, every TV show has just the one little thing... I try to ignore them, I really can't. All those little things pile up until the bad, worldly, ungodly, and sometimes demonic things completely outweigh the "good." Which still isn't good, because only GOD is good, and there's none of God in THERE.

Ugh. Living on this grimy filthy world is hard. It seems like to draw the line and cut out all these things that contain just the "harmless" evil aspects God hates would leave me with Veggie Tales and LotR. But I don't thing that's REALLY the thing that bugs me. I don't mind not allowing myself access to these things even though it's sad. It's the fact that all these movies with little bad things in it are the things we watch as a family every night.

Wait a minuet. Did I hear that right? Because something totally just clicked. All these "little" bad things in these movies we love; we watch these almost EVERY NIGHT. We're just LETTING Satan come into our lives without a second thought. Maybe that's why I haven't been wanting to read my Bible. Maybe that's why my siblings constantly fight like cats and dogs without end (or at least part of the reason). And thinking about that makes me mad. How much you wanna bet that Satan and his evil little demon minions are just so pleased with themselves that we're allowing all that evil in our lives? They're probably thrilled that these things that we hold so dear to our hearts are leaving less and less room for God. And God will not be second in our lives.

Well I've made up my mind. I'm raising the bar when it comes to the standard on entertainment I choose. I want to honestly think, "Is this something Jesus would watch?" Would he rather watch Star Trek, or Veggie Tales? I can see it now: "So Lord, do you want to watch Search for Spock, or Little Joe?" I think he'd go with #2. In fact I wish I could go through and just GET RID OF all these movie/TV JUNK that's in our house. No wonder I'm not crazy passionate for God anymore. I'm just sitting here munching away on worldly trash instead of being hungry for God. And I want that to change. I don't want to be lukewarm. And, even though this will be hard, I think I'm going to take a break from the TV. Nothing I watch is really any good anyway. When my family is watching stuff I don't want to see, I'm going to go to my room, put some worship music on, read my Bible and spend time with God. At the very least go somewhere were I can't hear it. So I'm writing this so that whoever reads this can hold me accountable for it.

Thanks so much Nik! That was just what I wanted to get across.

I don't know about you, but one thing that I struggle with is the radio. Sometimes I just want some more upbeat music like Relient K or Switchfoot, but they aren't on the Christian radio here and I get tired of listening to the same CDs... So there is an amazing radio station that totally fixes this problem! I'm not sure you've heard about it before, but it's Air 1. Check it out!

In Christ Alone,
Becky :)