O be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little eyes what you see
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little ears what you hear
O be careful little ears what you hear
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little ears what you hear
O be careful little hands what you do
O be careful little hands what you do
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little hands what you do
O be careful little feet where you go
O be careful little feet where you go
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little feet where you go
O be careful little mouth what you say
O be careful little mouth what you say
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little mouth what you say
I never realized the absolute beauty in this song until now. But it's one of the best songs about purity I've ever heard.
It's about the time of year where everyone is coming down with colds and coughs and sinus pressures just feeling miserable. Or maybe they get to feeling depressed because the clouds are starting to linger more and occasionally spit out cold rain and they will soon be dusting the ground in fluffy white snowflakes.
Either way, it's not stuff that makes us uber excited for life or school or crawling out of bed.
First off, I'm not depressed. I enjoy the gloomy weather and have enjoyed this weekend with hot cider, hot coffee, hot chocolate, my quilt from my childhood, my teddy bear, and a good book. (I've also been listening to Christmas music.. but that's kind of illegal because Thanksgiving isn't here yet.)
My point of that little rant was that while there are lots of external things that can drag us down and put us in a bit of a grumpy mood, most of what puts us in grumpy, discouraged, sad day moods is internal.
When I am finding myself distant from God because of apathy, selfishness, or just filling my mind with things that don't really glorify God, I feel sick. I feel gloomy, exhausted or just plain sad day. One thing I've been learning lately is that I didn't realized how much stuff I let in affects my whole mood. For example, I don't usually watch TV shows. In highschool, my little brother and I would watch old M*A*S*H reruns and Growing Pains.. nothing really dirty or mind polluting.
In my college years I've simply not owned a TV at all and so I would only ever watch things at other people's houses or visits to home. Even those were not much more than hallmark movies and holiday specials. Now, I live in an apartment that has a TV with cable. Not that often feel inclined to watch TV on my own (I enjoy TLC a little) but I have often joined my roommates in their TV viewings. They're choice in television are usually shows filled with cuss words and sexual innuendoes.
But I've found, that I've come more and more desensitized to television.. especially when I'm sitting in the living room while the shows are being watched and while I'm preoccupying myself with other things and "not really watching them".. I'm still hearing it, and it's still going into my mind. A small virus. A little bug. But it has terribly disastrous affects on how close I feel to God.
The more I get exposed to, the more I feel thankful for having been home schooled and sheltered in a Christian community. I simply did not know all the dirty thoughts out there in the world and nothing I said was taken out of context and made into something gross. No one was talking about other people in degrading ways or cussing for no reason. I have only recently come to learn that guys think gross thoughts and are rather immature. Girls think about boys all the time. They talk about them. They rate them. Guys do that about girls. Blah. No respect.
Purity. Of all the friends I have ever had in the course of my life time.. I only know a handful that chose to give up their virginity before marriage. For those that still aren't married, as far as I know, they're still striving to maintain purity and honor God. So, to me, in my little mind, I've never thought of the idea of maintaining purity to be a challenge. I feel like in youth group there was an unspoken list of *really* bad sins that we should not to do: Murder, get drunk, do drugs, have sex outside of marriage, and steal.
Ok, so yes, the Bible does say not to do these things. But it's bigger than that. Purity is more than not having sex outside of marriage, purity is not watching TV shows or movies with things that don't glorify God. Purity is being careful what you read on the internet or in books or elsewhere.
Purity is freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc. (Dictionary Definition.)
Purity is freedom.
Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Freedom is life.
Romans 6:22
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
So when we feel it necessary to blame the weather or a simple head cold, ( or the person who cut us off in traffic, the slow checker at the grocery store, person who won't return your call, the co-worker or boss who makes your life miserable, or the teacher that assigns homework for no real reason other than wanting to make your life miserable and wanting to make sure you know the material so that you can graduate with a degree that means something) on why we are in a grumpy mood, perhaps we should first look inward. What have we been filling our minds with? What sort of things have we been watching or reading or thinking or doing?
Psalm 119:9
How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.
1 Timothy 4:12
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
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