Lately, I've been thinking about what goes into my mind and heart. I've been convicted (even more so lately) about what I watch and what I read.
You may have heard of the book series called "50 Shades of Grey." I heard about it a couple months ago through my gal-pals on Instagram. I had never heard of the series before, but everyone was reading the books. Someone posted that if anyone wanted the books, she would email them out. So I put my email down, she emailed them to me, and I started reading them on the iPad.
I read the first chapter and remember thinking, "Why is everyone reading these? This is boring." But I kept reading. Actually, I read about 100 pages before I had to put it down. It was awful. I could not believe that someone actually wrote those things down. In a book. For everyone to see.
These books have caused a lot of controversy in the past several weeks. Basically, what it boils down to is this: porn. Yep. I had no idea what they were about when I started reading. Now, I don't even care to know what happens.
I choose not to read these books because:
- I don't want my husband looking at porn on the computer, so why would he want me reading it?
- These books are not about sex within a marriage. They weren't written by a Christian, and they are fiction.
- I have been convicted that these are not what God wants me to read.
If you choose to read them, fine. That's between you and God. I'm not going to judge you. But let me show you some Truth.
Philippians 4:8 (NIV84) says,
"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 praisesworthy--think about such things."
In the New Living Translation, it says
"And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."
I don't think those books are pure, lovely, or admirable. They definitely aren't praiseworthy. Have you ever heard the saying, "What goes in, must come out?"
Jesus talks in Matthew about what makes a man clean or unclean. It says,
"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."
Matthew 15:17-19 (NIV84)
Also, in James 3:9-12 where it talks about taming the tongue, it says,
"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water come from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."
The same is true for what we put into our minds. We can't be watching, reading, or listening to things that are mean, hateful, and immoral and expect positive, uplifting, pure comments to come from our mouth. It doesn't work that way. Only when you are immersed in God's Word can you rid the worldly thoughts and actions from your life.
In college, I watched a lot of movies. Some of them are ones that I'm not proud of. When Tyler and I got married, we didn't think we needed to be watching R-rated movies. Actually, when we moved to St. Louis, my cousin told us that they look at Plugged In before they decide whether or not they are going to watch that movie. So we both downloaded the free app to our phones and look up each movie before we decide to watch it.
Well, the hype now is all about "Magic Mike," with Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey. Yes, all of the girls want to watch this movie because these actors are so "hot." I knew what it was about (strippers) and decided that just for the heck of it, I would look to see what Plugged In had to say about it. No worries, I had no desire to watch it in the first place.
I read the review and was appalled at what I saw. In the "Sexual Content" section is says,
"To detail every [insert a more graphic description than what I want to share on my blog] we see would take pages. So I'll provide a few representative examples with as discreet a description as possible."
Wow! Usually, Plugged In has a pretty good review of movies. This movie has got to seriously be awful for him not to write a full description!
Fellow Christians, we cannot be feeding our minds with this crap! God calls us to a higher standard of living. Satan wants us to think that it will be fun to see movies or read books like these. But I don't know about you, when I come out of a movie that's awful, I don't feel very happy about it.
I challenge you to re-think what you read, watch, and listen to. Would it be pleasing to God if you read, watched, or listened to it? Are your kids going to think it's okay for them to be able to read, watch, or listen to it?
Becoming a Proverbs 31 woman (or a Man of God) is not easy. This is a step in the right direction, though.
Click here to see the full review of Magic Mike.
