Recently my young son was watching a video announcement on my husband’s phone and after it was done he came into my room very concerned. My four year old told me with his most sincere and honest heart that the video bothered him. The video wasn’t anything particularly bothersome—it was simply text and graphics with some background music. I asked him what bothered him and he said the music was bad, that it wasn’t good music.
We never belittle his feelings, especially when he’s being so sincere so when he asked his daddy to delete it, my husband did just that.
Of course we explained to him that the music wasn’t bad — there were no lyrics, it was simply music. But something about the music bothered our son and we wanted to make him feel better.
That night I couldn’t help but think about the honesty of a child.
How many times do things come our way that bother our spirits and we simply push them down because our adult pride thinks, It’s okay, I can listen to that, watch that, or read that. We get the feeling in our gut that something isn’t right and we push it away because nobody else is bothered by the situation.
We can’t forget that God gave us convictions that cannot be ignored. They are there for a reason and pushing them away is us telling God that the place He’s calling us to is not worth the sacrifice because no one else is doing it. Peer pressure is felt all throughout our lives, all because we achieve adulthood or a certain level in our walk with God does not mean we’re above it.
I was at a new restaurant with my family that we were excited to try. However, the atmosphere in the restaurant bothered us. I’m not calling it sinful but while we enjoyed the food we couldn’t stop talking about how the atmosphere just didn’t fit into our family’s values. I crave that food from time to time but when I start to think that I could ignore that feeling in my soul, I remember my son’s big eyes and worried look as he bravely asked us to “download the song all gone,” and I’m reminded that is the heart we should have. Whether it’s a place your friends hangout, books you shouldn’t be reading, or certain music that’s weighing you down, we have to bravely accept our convictions, bravely make the sacrifice, and “download the things all gone.”
God is calling us to a higher place, let Him take us there by bravely saying no to a few things that He doesn’t want in our lives.