The Path
With all the recent ice and snow we have had lately here in the Nashville TN area, our family has had a lot more time inside the house than we normally do. Although we have gone outside more than most and played in the ice and snow for extended periods of time (remember – our two kids early days were in Michigan so they are well versed in how to dress and act in the snow!) there still has been more time than usual inside the house.
This has led to more Kindle and TV time than we ever would have done if it was a normal week or month. On some days – this has had a negative effect o n the family dynamic. On the days that the kids played a little more Kindle than we normally do, and the days that they watched an extra movie (or two!), their behavior turned a little bad.
The same thing can happen for a Real Christian Businessman, when you or I let too much of the wrong kinds of music, wrong kind of books we are reading, or wrong kind of television shows into our mind.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Prov 4:23 (NIV)
“Our heart – our feelings of love and desire – dictates to a great extend how we live because we always find time to do what we enjoy. Solomon here tells us to guard our heart above all else, making sure we concentrate on those desires that will keep us on the right path.” (From the Life Application Study Notes on this verse).
Keep us on the right path – that is what I am reminding us about today.
I’m not here to condemn us all for watching TV or listening to music or playing video games. We do and always find time to do things we enjoy and these are fun things! But we need to have guardrails put up to prevent us from going too far with these things as they end up affecting us in ways we really don’t even realize. They get into our heart.
Guardrails could be accountability from other people, timers on how long we watch/play something, filters on our computers – mechanisms that will remind us to keep a “guard on our heart.”
Put some things into place to help “guard your heart.” The benefits for doing this will be well worth it.