Choosing the Right Entertainment as a Believer

Music can be a powerful force.  Not only does music inspire but it can also influence, both positively and negatively.  As my children are becoming teenagers I am beginning to see more and more the impact that music can have. 

My hope has always been that my children would embrace Christian music.  I appreciate the different styles of music and don’t really care what style they choose, as long as it’s Christian.  However it hasn’t quite played out that way.  Despite raising my children on Christian music, one of my children hasn’t really embraced it the way I had hoped.

When he expressed interest in other types of music, introduced to him by a family member, I was very upset at first.  I immediately went into the whole “its devil music” attempt at scaring him.  It didn’t take me long to realize that not only was that unfair to my child it also wasn’t true. 

One day I expressed my dismay over my child’s choice of music to my pastor’s wife. She gave me some great words of wisdom that I now live by.  She said that music is like food.  Some food is just plain bad for you.  If you keep consuming it, it will eventually kill you. 

Now think about that.  If you were to eat a Big Mac every single day it would eventually do your body some serious harm.  The same is true for particular types of music, especially music that is vulgar or abusive. 

Then she said that some music is like food that is very healthy.  It will strengthen your body just as some music will strengthen you spiritually.  I equate that to praise and worship music. 

However there is also some food that isn’t necessarily good or bad for you.  It just is.  The same is true in some types of music.  It is just sort of neutral.  The music my child was listening to was really just neutral. 

I think this analogy can be applied to many other areas in a believer’s life.  When trying to determine our choices in entertainment, whether it is movies or books we read, we can measure it against this analogy with food. 

Choosing the right entertainment as a believer doesn’t have to very complicated.  We don’t have to be so rigid that we can’t have fun.  Yet we don’t have to be so loose that we compromise our faith.  Just think about food the next time you have to make an entertainment decision.  Is it really bad for you, very healthy or just something neutral?