I went walking today and saw a young girl, maybe 8 or so, with a novel tucked under her arm. I didn't pay attention at first as she passed by me, but then it hit me. I knew that author. I used to read his stuff. Gruesome, gory stuff. It was hard for me to stomach as an adult, but she's a mere kid! I just keep thinking about it: about that girl and the images she'll read and visualize.
I also started thinking about the promise I made myself a couple years ago.
I love books. I love to read. And I love to go to movies and there are some TV shows that I have watched that I have actually thrown parties to celebrate. I am a media girl, I suppose.
I decided a while ago, that the stuff I had been watching and reading was just plain not appropriate for me. There are some images I have seen in movies I so wish I would have never seen. Those images are stuck there in my brain and I can't get rid of them.
And for the novels I was reading, I remember once walking past a film crew for the local TV station as I left the library and I quickly snuck the new novel I was dying to read under my arms so no one could see what I was reading. If I didn't want people to know I was reading it, then why should I in the first place?
I was convicted. I'm a child of Christ and I have choices in what my eyes see. I need to be careful. I need to be intentional.
So, I decided I would do away with at least three things in my reading and watching: if I came across them, I would either turn the channel or put the book down. One of those things was bloody gore. I was done reading graphic thrillers that I used to so love. Those images just shouldn't be in my head, I decided. I would rather spend my time reading other things.
I was able to bypass that one easily. I just skipped certain authors. I could tell by most previews which movies to avoid and could tell by commercials which shows to stop watching. It meant I had to give up two or three shows I had watched regularly, but again, I just felt convicted that I needed to stop watching those images.
One of the other things that was much more troublesome for me to avoid was adultery. I can't tell you how many novels I have started reading only to put down after the first chapter in frustration.
I have had books mentioned to me by friends, great reads, they would urge, but then they would describe an adulterous situation. I would have to pass....
I remember my sister and I both looking forward to watching a new television show: the commercials made the show look amazing. We were so pumped for this show to begin.
And it did. Within the first two episodes I knew adultery was coming up quickly.
We never discussed the show those first weeks. But, then after a month or so, the topic came up. She admitted she had stopped watching the show. "I found myself rooting for the husband to leave his wife for another woman. I was done with that show," she told me.
We are just bombarded by images we see and read, aren't we? We are shown day after day that morals are relative, true love never waits and it's okay to do any number of things because that's the way everybody does it.
And it seems like we Christians all have our own set of rules when it comes to entertainment. It's a hard topic to discuss, even harder to argue and it's strange to see how two people who love Jesus so much have such different views in their media intake.
That old song I sung as a child came back to me tonight:
"Oh be careful little eyes what you see...."
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