It was sort of a filler, the kind of water-cooler conversation piece news organizations put between their bigger stories.
But it captured my attention.
Maybe you heard it too. A new study in the journal Pediatrics suggests that parents who watched more sexually explicit scenes in movies were more likely to say it was OK for their children to watch those movies at younger ages. In essence, the more the parents watched, the more desensitized they became.
I think it evoked such interest in me because I had just heard Pastor Woody’s message on fleeing from the temptations of sex outside of marriage. This secular study in Pediatrics supported just what God’s Word tells us. When we live from the outside in, the outside begins to change what’s in our hearts.
I’ve seen this truth in my life. Back in my early adulthood, I reveled in the freedom of finally being able to watch or read pretty much anything I wanted. The more I saw, the less it bothered me.
Thankfully, as I grew in my relationship with God, that began to change in me. Not in a legalistic way, but in a “I don’t want to fill my mind with that” way. I began to realize that the images and ideas I poured into my mind were not easily expunged.
What we put in our minds matters.
And for us as parents, that matters perhaps even more. Not only can little eyes stumble upon what we watch, but what we let into our minds influences how we parent. Thank you, pediatricians, for this reminder.
Of course, this is not easy. I recently had a friend tell me about a movie she had seen that sounded fantastic. It was my favorite genre (mystery/thriller) and starred one of my favorite actors. Then, she mentioned that it had some pretty racy scenes. Ugh.
I still wanted to see it. I even check out some reviews and trailers. And then, I just asked God what He wanted me to do. But really, He’d already answered.
Phlippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, 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."
What does God want you to do with that? What does He want me to do? I think we ask: Is it true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable? If not, let’s ask God for the strength to flee. For ourselves, our marriages, our children.