Innocent About Evil

This afternoon I was reading in my devotional book, “101 Devotions For The Homeschool Mom” and this particular devotion really hit me. For multiple reasons. The first is, today, I have had quite a few people search and find my blog, because they are searching something like ‘Bible Study 50 Shades of Grey’ or ‘Has 50 shades caused divorce’ and ‘watching Magic Mike immoral’. All of these things disturb me. Obviously, I have no idea who is searching them, and so, will make no judgment on said people.

I also posted a status on Facebook, on my personal page that said this:

“I’m refusing to read “50 Shades of Grey” or see “Magic Mike”. I think it’s time we stand up for our marriages and refuse to let things in that can destroy them. Anybody else want to join me?”

I had  a friend comment and remind me that we need to beware of the not-so-obvious things that we are letting into our minds as well. Even the reading of reviews on these  genres of movies and books. To which, I whole-heartedly agree! I did read the review on Plugged-In for Magic Mike, and I read the brief description of 50 Shades of Grey on Amazon. Neither of which had too much information, but enough to tell me what I needed to know.

Ok, back to the devotional. I’m sure you’re wondering how all this ties in. Romans 16.17-19 says:

“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.”

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Her point in the devotional is that, sometimes, when we are trying to keep our children from evil, we are instead exposing it to them. When you have DARE come and speak to discourage your children from doing drugs, if your children didn’t know much about drugs to start with, they have no been exposed to the evils of it. In a nutshell, that is her point.

Instead, she says how we need to teach our children what is the best thing to do. We need to teach them about wisdom, and making good choices, for one day too soon, they will be on their own having to face all the evils this world has to offer. We need to teach them to be wise in what is good, and innocent about evil. We need to be reiterating what is good and really, sheltering them from what is evil.

Now to continue my thought process. All of this ’50 Shades’ and ‘Magic Mike’ crap really gets me worked up and angry. I’m not even going to lie. I try to be very careful when discussing issues like these as to not put images into your head that can not easily be forgotten. Instead, I like to encourage you to stay as far away from it as possible. We know that it isn’t good for us! If we have to Google whether or not we should be watching/reading these types of things, I’m pretty sure we have our answer right there!

Let us be wise in what is good, and innocent of evil. We are not so different from our children except that our parents are not watching over us to protect us from the evils of the world. Instead, we need to be relying on the Word and Wisdom of God to direct us. I really feel that to truly believe that this genre of books/movies etc. is okay for us to indulge in, that we are far from the heart of God and not in the Word. We are not being innocent of evil, nor wise in what is good.

Clearly this is a bit of a soap box issue for me, so for now, I will step down. I will leave you with one thought. I found a sticky note that my sister had written on and it was in my Bible. This is what it said:

You are either in the Word or you are in the World.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be in the Word.

Blessings,