Garbage In - Garbage Out

Remember that old saying, "Garbage in, garbage out"? Essentially, it means that what you put into your body is what, eventually, comes out. The saying also applies to the mind. What you watch or read (or listen to) eventually manifests itself somehow. For a select few, it has resulted in people addicted to violent gaming committing violent real-life crimes.

These days, as I try to eat cleaner for my body, I am also trying my best to keep the garbage out of the rest of me. In the past, this really wasn't too hard to do. I have lived in a bubble where my social life consisted of church and homeschool group activities - and I am no way sorry for that!

But we own a television and we are hooked up to the internet. I work a job where I am around other people on a daily basis. Yes, I work in a library, but that doesn't mean I don't hear things that I shouldn't. There are a few ladies in our book discussion group who are very liberal in more ways than one and they are extremely loud about it. Yikes.

I can control what I see and hear while I am at home. I can choose to watch on our internet enabled television only that which is good and clean. I can choose to read only the books and other materials that are clean and wholesome. What I cannot often control is what I hear while at work or the grocery store - or anywhere else where the public is involved.

And that's what I struggle with. I cringe when someone swears. I don't enjoy crude jokes. I especially get angry when my Savior is cursed.

I think that the key to receiving garbage that you never wanted anyway and then not allowing it come out of you and harm someone else is to pray every day about it and to surround yourself with that which uplifts Christ as much as you can, like reading your Bible daily. Knowing Scripture by heart is a powerful weapon against the enemy.

Jesus was around vile people while He walked this earth. He did not allow them to corrupt Him. He will not allow the vile people in my life to corrupt me - or you - either.