Garbage in, garbage out

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he"
Proverbs 23:7

When I was a teenager, there was a Carman song that he prefaced his performance of by quoting the above verse and paraphrasing it as, "so basically, garbage in, garbage out." I didn't "get" what he meant by that back then. In fact, I didn't truly get it until a few years ago.

There have been times in my life when I have been downright careless about what I allowed in. Music, movies, TV: It didn't matter what I exposed myself to because I knew the TRUTH and that was all that mattered...so I thought.

I'm ashamed to admit that there have been times when I have actually sought out the garbage. There is so much negative in music and on TV, and I was one of the many who went right along with it all, enjoying it and not thinking it really made a difference in my life. I was saved, after all, and nothing would change that.

Well, the latter part of that is true: Nothing can take away my salvation. However what I took in made a very big difference in my life.

Christmastime 2007 I was living in Fort Worth and found a radio station that played only Christmas music. Since I LOVE Christmas music, I was thrilled and left my car's radio on only that station all season.

When January came and the Christmas music stopped, I left my dial on that station: A contemporary Christian station.

It took me a while to get used to the new music. A few of the artists and songs I knew, but not many. The music was good, though, and I enjoyed the messages brought by different preachers in the morning. I would listen to them on my way to work and the music on my way home.

It didn't take long before I started noticing a difference in the way I felt mentally and emotionally...and how I reacted to things I saw and heard. The music I had listened to was so...nasty to me now. The TV shows I once enjoyed and sought out soon became more and more difficult to watch.

My TV watching habits soon changed, too. I sought out positive things to watch and avoided the negative. It was hard to do because anyone who knows me knows I love a good murder mystery. But the blood and gore, even if only acted and staged, began to be too much for me.

Now, I'm not at all saying I'm perfect. And even though I have purposefully changed my intake of things via different forms of media, I still do not always do what I know I should such as spend more time in Bible study and prayer. I always yearn for more of those even if my habits do not reflect it.

What I am saying, though, is that I have seen firsthand the difference it makes when you consciously change what you allow into your head and heart. I never want to be perceived as "that snooty girl who claims she can't stand so-and-so". To be honest, it's often awkward to tell people I don't know who a contemporary musician is because I only listen to Christian music. Many people aren't sure what to say to that. I try to tell people it's a decision I made for me because the things of the world had started getting to me.

I found that I was less stressed and much more optimistic when I changed the tone of what I watched and listened to. I also found that, over time, it has become more and more difficult to tolerate the negative. Can I eliminate it from my life completely? No. I live in a sinful, fallen world. There are going to be "bad" stories in the news every day here. But I can choose how much and what kind of things I allow into my life.

It's made a huge difference to me. I feel closer to the Lord as a result. I wish the same for everyone.