Healthy and Unhealthy choices!

During this unexpected time, we need to chose healthy choices for entertainment, so we don’t get spiritually sick! Our decisions can affect the condition of the heart and mind! Is our choice good and pleasing to God? God loves his children having fun together because it brings him glory! However, we need the abiding relationship with Jesus to discern what is good entertainment and what is not! As Christians who love God and each other, we want to fix our eyes on Jesus! In our choices, we do not join in the patterns of the world (Hebrews 12:2-3). We need to throw off anything that hinds or gets in the way of our relationship with Jesus (Hebrews 12:1). Because what we watch or listen to affects our minds and hearts. They’re so many multimedia choices to choose from and there just one click away! It could easily consume your whole day! This will cause us not to be sober minded in our decisions (1 Peter 5:8). We need God to help us to discern what is healthy and unhealthy. When we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and ask him to order our steps, it will help narrow our choices down leading us to healthier decisions! The more we allow God to transform our minds by soaking his living word each day, we will be stronger! When we stay in relationship with other people especially during trials, we will support each other to keep going on the right path and spur each other on (Hebrews 10:24). It’s in the uncomfortable times in our life that can either bring us closer together or separate us! We need to be the salt and light in All parts of our lives even in our choices in entertainment (Matthew 5:13-16).

We need to be on guard with all the free resources offered to us, be careful what we allow in our homes. Our children have the world and all its influences right at their fingertips! My goal is to challenge every choice offered for entertainment by aligning it to God’s word! To help my children develop good habits by learning how to ask questions, keep watch and to be on guard (1 Peter 5:8). To have hands-on lessons about what guarding your heart with everything means and how our choices affect our decisions in our future (Proverbs 4:23)! When you put too much junk food into your minds, junk will come out of your actions with what you say and do! Good habits when you are young grow you into a stronger adult! It’s like riding a bike, you won’t forget!

I’m challenging my children to pay attention to what’s going on in the movies or games. Just because everyone is laughing in the movie, doesn’t mean it’s funny! How can we stay spiritually healthy in a world full of entertainment? It starts like this, ask questions with your children while watching or playing a movie or game! By creating this habit, it will grow with them in the future for everything! Philippians 4:8-9 is my spiritual filter! “Finally, brothers and sisters, 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. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

The easy things in your day might be a red flag! I’m saying this because of the challenges I face each day! It’s easy to just put on a show or let your kids play computer games! The quiet isn’t always a good thing! We need trials to challenge us and children, so we can teach discernment! These life experiences prepare them for when they grow up! “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). This is a way for us to grow with our children in a way only God knows (Romans 5:1-5).

God loves all of us so much that he has set in place everything we need to stay spiritually healthy during difficult times! I’m thankful for all the challenges because in the challenge we grow too! He made a way for us to stay connected, but we still have a choice to make each day! Fixing our eyes on Jesus and trusting all of God’s promises. To seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything will be added onto you (Matthew 6:33), “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4). We have an online campus, life groups, and all age online ministries and more to stay spiritually healthy and connected to each other. We need accountability in relationships to stay connected because iron sharpens iron,and we need to spur each other on (Proverbs 27:17), (Hebrews 10:24). So, with all the different varieties of entertainment to choose from, God says to be careful how you live (Ephesians 5:15). God’s word also says in Ephesians 5:16-20, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have to remember to guard our hearts because everything flows from it (Proverbs 4:23). We need to root ourselves in Him! (Colossians 2:6-7).