Desensitized

Hi Girls,

Ever think we'd have an easier time being childlike if we had our childlike innocents back? Probably. Parents have such a huge responsibility to shelter their children, to protect their minds. The older I get, the more aware of this I become. I used to get annoyed at my parents sheltering ways, thinking they were inhibiting me from understanding the world or just having some fun. But now that I think of it, parents do have a responsibility to shield their children while equipping them with the skills to understand and process the bad stuff that does happen in the world.

There is a song by POD I believe that mentions how we scar children with images they can't forget. Think about that for a second. Are there any things in your mind or life that haunt you? Children sometimes have terrible nightmares, brought on by things they witness during the day. Even now that we're older we can be tormented by our thoughts and dreams, fortunately, we know there is a God who conquers all of that but it makes me think that we should try to avoid from polluting our minds in the first place.

It's hard though. The process of desensitization can happen so slowly. Children can be so easily scarred by violent images or mean talk but as we get older, we almost get used to it. It doesn't bother us as badly. Sometimes people even begin to think that it's not that bad anymore. For example, think of how some little kids are so sensitive to 'bad' words and then when we get older, it's like no big deal, hear it all the time. Is that a good attitude to have? Look at how movies keep pushing the bar on violence and other sins; people want more to thrill them because they are too used to what they've seen in the past that it provides them with no sick pleasure anymore.

So what does all this mean for us? Well, I just hope that we become more aware of what we let into our minds and the thoughts we keep. After all, Philippians 4:8 tells us pretty clearly to think about "...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." Let that be the rule that guides us. Just because evil is out there in the world, doesn't mean we need to concentrate on it. 


Matthew 15:16-20 states "...But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes." 
And again in Matthew 7: 20-23, "He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."


Pretty serious stuff eh? We pollute ourselves by what we allow into our hearts. So we need to protect our minds from effecting the way we feel in our hearts. It's all about keeping ourselves pure and honourable to God. Life becomes so much more free and enjoyable when we don't have disturbing feelings tagging along with us. And we don't want to lead ourselves into sin either.


So I think it's time we allow ourselves to be sensitive again. To see things as they really are and understand how God sees it. When we ask God to allow us to look at the world through his eyes, everything becomes a whole lot clearer than before. We see it as it really is, as the truth. And then we can see God's love and heart for changing the world.