“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8

Some time ago I felt convicted….just so you know the meaning I am referencing is “to impress with a sense of guilt”……by God, regarding the movies I have watched. Before I go into great detail as to why, I want you to know I am not referring to X-Rated movies because I do not watch those but am actually referring to R-Rated, PG13-Rated and PG-Rated ones.  No I do not believe they are all bad but my personal conviction is that of a total sense of being grossed out by what Hollywood believes to be acceptable, even G-Rated movies have to have sexual “adult” humor but they are supposed to be for kids.

About a year ago I was watching a movie, not gonna name it, with some friends because the ratings were great and the previews didn’t show anything that should be concerning but was beyond shocked at the opening scene; for those of you who know me personally, that says a lot.  Within the first few minutes I was watching a movie, having paid full evening price, that had unmarried sex, adultery, cuss words, children disrespecting their parents, and so much more…within the first few minutes.  I was totally shocked, what was even more disgusting to me was we all sat there, individually, trying to decide if we should get up and walk out or hope that the movie gets better because we don’t want to upset anyone for leaving.

On the way home from the movie I heard God asking me if I had learned my lesson yet or not.  I wasn’t quiet sure what He meant but I had a pretty good idea.  There is a verse in the Bible, First Thessalonians 5:22, that talks about not being in the appearance of evil and by being there watching, a younger than age appropriate rated show, I was within evil’s grasp.  Now that may sound funny to some of you because you may not see anything wrong with it, you may not have listened to God’s whisper or maybe I am just becoming a little bit more conservative but I felt God breaking my heart for Him.  So enough with the movies that I knew were not God-honoring.

It has worked really well, I don’t rent romantic comedies anymore because I know their is inevitably adultery screaming throughout those movies, I have never rented horror but on occasion I will rent action ones, that are decent, for my husband and I to watch for a date night; even that is few and far between.  I thought things were going pretty smoothly since I changed that outlook on life, that is until a few days ago.

I was listening to a speaker speak about how his son told him that his (the dad’s) life needed to be louder than his words and it felt as though it crushed my soul.  I often feel like my kids watch way too much television, do not spend enough time doing other creative things or even spend enough time reading; actions speak louder than words is what God was telling me, that day.

I had created an idol (golden calf) out of the TV.  I watch TV while eating, cooking, downtime in the evening, while doing homework, and while helping the kids with their homework but in my defense, a lot of that time is just to have plain old background noise.  Why?  It really makes no sense to me except that I am realizing, day three of no TV for me, that I have an addictive personality to things unhealthy instead of being addicted to He Who created me.  It’s not that I don’t spend time with God reading my Bible, praying, worshiping, tithing, etc. it just made me think that if I even spent half the time with God as I do with the Television I would have a PhD in Scripture Memorization.  Okay I may be exaggerating a tiny bit but I feel convicted about it, which means I need a change.

The point to this rant is I am to think on these things: true, honorable, just, pure,lovely, commendable, any excellence, anything worthy of praise.  So far Television and movies have not fit that bill so cold turkey cut off, count me in.

Not Yet But Getting There! (notyetproverbs31)