It's Just What's Normal

Hey guys!
It's a rainy night here in Tampa. To be honest I'm loving this wet and cool-ish weather! I'm sitting at my desk, wearing my favorite H&M sweater, while listening to Sarah Bareilles, trying to pretend that it's fall. But I live in Florida, so It's kinda just late summer/ July with pumpkins!

Anyhoo. I've been thinking a lot about something lately. Last week at youth group Nate (our youth leader) was doing a lesson titled "Guard your heart". Most people that have grown up in church like I have will have heard that phrase multiple times. When I hear it, initially I think "Guard my heart so that I can give it to my husband someday," or "Guard my heart against people that would want to hurt it". But when our speaker was talking he kind of put it in a different way then I had thought of before. He looked at it as "Guard your heart from the world, from things that will steal it's innocence, from a world that's so harsh and degrading."

Quick story:
My family went to Busch Gardens (a local amusement park/zoo) recently. We've been there multiple times, and we love it! When we lived in Tampa two and a half years ago, Busch Gardens had an ice show at the park that people could watch to escape the heat. It was very family-friendly, the ice skaters were very talented, and the show was about a grandfather exploring the jungle with his grandchildren. (Hence the zoo part of the park)

When we went to the ice show recently, it had a new name and a new cover, but the girl on the cover was very cute and had on a pretty appropriate dance costume. We went in and soon the show started. The second it did it was very raunchy, seductive, and the dancing was very suggestive. I was incredibly surprised. The costumes went from ok, to literally glittery undergarments. And the music playing could be considered very popular song that I'm sure were top of the charts but were not songs that my family would want playing in our house.
After waiting for a few minutes to see if it would get better, my parents decided just to leave. So, in the middle of a dance number, we simply got up and left. Incredibly surprised and somewhat disappointed.

Sorry, that story wasn't super quick. But it's something that made me really frustrated. It was considered a very family-friendly show. Great for all ages! Yes, the dancers were very talented. The costumes were glittery and caught your eye. But for some reason raunchy and seductive is what families want to see now?


In our culture nowadays I feel like the standard has been shot. Family-friendly is relative. According to the world intense language, inappropriate scenes (not going to be specific but you get my point), heavy drinking and violence, and suggestive clothing is completely normal. And frankly, it is something that is encouraged by our society nowadays.

Even this weekend my family was watching Incredibles 2 and as I was paying attention I was surprised at the amount of drinking and violence that is geared towards kids. Not to mention they had to throw in two or three (softer) bad words to keep the adults watching.


Since when is this what families want their kids to watch? And its worse for teenagers. Tv Shows, Movies, video games! And I'm always incredibly surprised when I go on iTunes and the most popular songs on the charts almost all have explicit stickers next to them. Not to mention that on some of the covers people are literally wearing close to nothing, smoking or drinking, or doing drugs or some sort. Where are the boundaries?


To tie this back to "Guard your heart", the bible doesn't just talk about guarding your heart from people. But also from things of this world.

One thing Nate said was that "If you choose to stand out NOW, you'll stand out LATER."

Are you going to be the one that says, "Nah I'm good. I'm going to sit this movie out", and be rewarded by Christ in the future for being pure of heart? Or are you going to go with the simpler answer and just go to the movie and say "As long as I don't do the stuff they're doing in the movie I'll be fine."

You guys know that I'm not writing this to roast any one's decisions. That's the last thing I'm trying to do. And I'm 100% guilty of watching the movies, the TV shows, or listening to that one song as long as I don't so the stuff they're doing. But when are WE going to decide to be the reason that those movies aren't popular?
It's supply and demand, give the people what they want, if we choose to say "no" it might make others take a second and think about stuff. Are you going to be the reason that our generation begins to make godly decisions?

Are you going to be the one that stands out? If so, then I'll be right there with you. It'll seem lonely at first, but it will make a huge difference in our generation. And hopefully, every generation that comes after!


Yikes! That was a lot. I just hope that this helps you guys take the extra second and think about what you're putting into your heart. And hopefully, this is something that we can all work on together!

Your friend,
Savannah