Call Me a Prude...Please!

"I will set before my eyes no vile thing."  Psalm 101:3 (NIV)

This verse played in my head for a couple of weeks.  I couldn't understand it.  I try to be careful what I watch on TV and of the books I read.  I really don't hang around in places that house a lot of "vile" things.  Why was that verse resounding in my brain?

Weeks passed.

Then I knew.

God foresaw the situation that I would face...and worked to prepare me.  He wanted to protect my mind...my heart.

My hairdresser was running late...about 10 minutes, he said...did I want to look at a magazine? Interestingly, every magazine on top of the table in the waiting area was written in Chinese or Japanese...or some language I couldn't read. So I reached for the ones in the side bin. I expected to find the latest copy of People, which for a prude like myself, is a guilty indulgence reserved for waiting rooms. Instead, I found a magazine that begins with Cosmo and ends with politan. (I can't even bear to write the full word!) Just a fashion magazine, I thought, remembering the days back in college when I purchased a few. Well, even then, it probably pushed the limits of acceptable literature for one who wants her mind to remain pure. Anyway, I opened it up. I shouldn't have. The article titles on the cover should have stopped me in my tracks.

I wish that verse had played one more time...before I looked.


The uncomfortable feeling that I had sitting next to someone that might see what I was reading should have caused me to stop.

But no.

I set before my eyes vile words...thoughts...images.

That type of magazine should be behind a counter in a brown cover...not just out where teenagers...or 51 year old women could get a hold of it!  (Actually, it should not be written in the first place.)

I slapped it closed.  I put it back in the rack.  I wanted to wash away what I had allowed into my mind.

As the my hairdresser scrubbed my head, I imagined the scouring away of those thoughts from my brain.

Our generation has reached a point where vile often has become accepted...even the norm.  That's disturbing.

It makes me mad that when I get a gift card (from my darlin' hubby for Valentine's Day) to buy books for my NOOK that I have to scroll through book after book of smut.  It's appalling!

Friends, let's heed the words...the warning.  Those vile things come between us and the Lord.  They cripple our walk.  Let's protect our minds...our hearts...our homes.

Father, help us to remember that You are all-seeing, all-knowing...that we never escape Your presence...that Your eyes search to and fro across the earth for those whose hearts are fully committed to You.  Help us to be fully committed...to walk in absolute obedience to Your Word.  Thank you for the words of warning that You send our way.  Cleanse our hearts, oh God.  Purify us.  Guard our hearts and minds.