Television. I have a hate/only-kind-of-hate relationship with it. I'm talking about entertainment-wise. I completely understand and agree that it can be an excellent tool and aide. I enjoy watching movies from time to time. But what I care to see anymore is few and far between. See, I don't know what you would call it? Conversion? Heart change? Regeneration? Conviction? But most days I want to pull my hair out and scream like a crazy woman. Sex. Violence. Blasphemy. Sex. Lies. Abominations. Sex. Gimmegimmegimmegimmegimme (especially on Saturday mornings...yes, sometimes I have to watch cartoons...nearly 30 years old and still can't get away from it) I feel like a raving lunatic!
Portraying intimacy on the screen has always made me highly uncomfortable...it wouldn't matter to me if the actors were married in real life or not, or if they were fully clothed like Amish people, just the insinuation of an intimate act between two people has made me squirmy for as long as I can remember. Even when I was living an immoral life with no real regard for Christ, I just did not care to see it whatsoever. Even when I was cheapening myself with things of the world, I have always thought it cheapened the act that I knew (though rebelled severely against) ought to be between just one man and one woman. Now, ever since giving that past up to Christ a couple of years ago, it's almost as if it flips a switch when the tone of a program begins to shift to seduction. Skimpy clothing (on men and women) does it to me as well. I don't understand it. I can't say that I have felt this passionately about it before I wandered away from the Lord, but boy, oh boy, it's there now! But obviously I'm the only person it offends.
I don't know what to do, how to handle it. I feel like a mother scolding their child and I'm just tired of repeating myself. It exasperates me that this disgusts only me. And if it does bother anyone else, it isn't so ugly that anything is done about it. The entertainment is more important than godliness. It just makes me cry tears of anguish and sorrow. WHY DOES THIS NOT GRIP ANY HEART BUT MINE!? I want to shake people and ask "WHAT PART OF HOLY DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND??" I am not perfect. God is still working on me and I am still resistant at times. I am a feeble, weak woman apart from God's mercy and love, but as someone who used to think nothing of dancing on bars in drunken debauchery and going home with men I barely knew and for God to do this change in my heart, WHAT is it going to take??? I certainly do not believe people have to go down the dark roads to appreciate or want to seek the road of Life.
And it's not just television. Magazines. Computer games. Comic books. Sometimes (more jokingly than anything) I can't help but wonder why I had not been created a man. Then, I could really preach, lol! I can only pray for God to do a work in the hearts of those who are supposed to be the leaders in the home, because I cannot do it. It is not my place to be the spiritual leader in the home, and I am trying hard to not usurp the authority that is not given to me. I wonder though...would this be considered crossing the line? Could I really post this "prayer" on the telly and get away with it?lol I could go sit in another room when these programs come one, and I would be in a room all alone most of the time. I just don't know anymore. I'm about ready to throw my hands up and just sit in the bedroom all by myself. Rant over. For now.
Trust me, you are not the only one that this offends. It is so disgusting to turn on even a cooking program and hear the sexual innuendos. Come on people...food is something you eat, so to make sexual connotations about it is down right GROSS!!!
ReplyDeleteBut that's not the only place I am turned off on t.v. it's like you said...it's the mass majority of programming. The moral value of society has diminished so much. It's time for America and the world for that matter to wake up.
On another note it is good to see you back online and writing. You have been thought of often and missed.
~Mrs. M
AMEN, PREACH IT SISTER!!! What better way to start your posting on this blog again than with a rant, huh? ;) Seriously, I grew up with TV. I didn't say I grew up without a TV, just without TV. We had a TV and used it to once-in-a-while watch an OLD, CLEAN movie. No TV. And you know...I survived. And I think it made me quite a better person for not having to view the innuendos, the attitudes, all that nasty stuff that's in even the kids stuff. And what's more, I didn't have to see the commercials either, so I was not dissatisfied with non-name-brand clothes.
ReplyDeleteWe still have a TV, we still watch movies (our movie collection has grown to be quite large), but we do not have cable or anything else. And we don't miss it. Granted, it would be nice now and then to watch the news, or to see reruns of a good show, but it's just as easy to turn on the radio for news, and buy the reruns on DVD off of eBay or something like that.
So you just keep on preaching, and we'll keep on coming over here and reading!! You go, girl!
Thank-you for taking the time to "RANT" I say amen to all your comments. I loved nothing better than than to sit with knitting in hand & watch a good movie but they are few & far between. I now limit my tv watching & listen to online sermons while I knit or sew or watch the Waltons Little house on the prairie or love comes softly series over & over!!!!! Jo
ReplyDeleteThank you sisters, for your encouraging words! I'm trying hard to not be that person who whines every time she blogs, but I know that at least here I can find people of like-mind who understand and have been there. I also do NOT like to be the woman who gripes on her husband or about her husband, but I'm almost at a loss as to why it seems my heart is the only one moved if we are both Christians.
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