You Have Heard It Said...

You know the next commandment pretty well, too:

“Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.”  But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed.  Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body.  Those leering looks you think nobody notices – they also corrupt.

Matthew 5:27-28 [The Message]

I don’t watch much TV these days.  It isn’t that I don’t have the time… I just don’t have the interest.  There are two shows that I always try to watch:  NCIS and Castle, and I love Masterpiece Theatre on PBS, but other than that, I just don’t bother.  Why?  It is because I don’t care for the blatant immorality that is the basis for so much of television these days.  If I am not to conduct myself in that manner, why in the world would I want to sit and watch someone else do it, or listen to endless innuendos and jokes on the subject?

I have been on my own now for six years, and occasionally one of my girls will inquire as to whether or not I am ready to look for another relationship.  My daughters and well-meaning friends have slowly learned that I don’t want their matchmaking help.  I will never forget, however, a conversation that I had with one of my children on this subject.  She was expressing her loving concern about my being alone, and strongly urged me to seek another relationship.  She also had a piece of advice:  “If you are going to enter the dating scene, Mom, you will have to forget about your old-fashioned ideas of morality.  Society is different now, and men expect more.” 

Oh, really?  Hmmm…that which was morally wrong when I was a kid is now expected behavior?  Perhaps – but not for me.  Jesus said that your heart could be corrupted by merely looking – a truth that the world’s addiction to pornography sadly illustrates. What another human being might “expect” from me is not nearly as important as what God wants for my life.  Purity of mind and heart may not be an easy task, but it is an eternal goal.