1 Nephi 8:26-28
"And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth. And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit. And after they had tasted of the fruit, they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost."
with clarity in such a way that the noticing of them
has given me much thought about Lehi's dream,
which his son, Nephi shared above.
The Great and Spacious Building
has been described as many things--
the pride of the world,
the carnality of the world,
the ungodliness of the world
in short,
the GSB ain't a place for followers of Christ
to be hanging out in the lobby,
laying out by the pool
or sitting in the garden
if you know what I mean.
No dawdling about.
Translated into real world terms,
we understand it to mean
that as followers of Christ,
we should keep our hands clean
our hearts and bodies as pure as we can.
No Pollution Allowed.
No "putting ourselves in places
where the Holy Ghost cannot go"
is a familiar phrase.
We sorta start with our choices of
Entertainment:
G-rated movies are preferred.
PG-rated with discretion.
Absolutely no R- or X-rated movies.
And that pretty much goes for everything else
from books to music to TV shows.
I have tried to make these guidelines a habit
by calling forth the thought:
"Would I be comfortable watching/listening/reading this material
with my youngest child? With the Prophet? With the Lord himself?"
Just today,
I threw away a book I bought probably 5 years ago,
that was on some "Best Sellers" list--
I was finally getting around to reading it
and a few pages into it,
I was squirming.
By Chapter Two,
I was feeling nauseas.
So there was a choice to make--
it's not like my kids or husband would ever want to read it,
noone would ever even ask me about it,
but
this wasn't about them.
It's about Me. My mind. My soul.
I could keep it or trash it.
I put it where it belonged.
We've had some experiences around here in Momza's house
lately where the GSB has been marketing to us.
My 17 yo daughter brought home a magazine
a couple of weeks ago--
Cosmop*litan.
I was surprised when I saw it on the coffee table
and wondered where it came from--
when Day said she'd just bought it because it had an
entertainer on the front cover that she likes.
She hadn't even looked at it.
So I picked it up and told her I don't buy those for a reason.
She started to balk at my words,
and I simply said,
"Well take this over to Sister H's house and see what she says."
(*Sr. H is her Young Women's leader/Bishop's wife whom Day adores
and respects tremendously.)
Dara conceded at that point to let me pull all of the offensive articles,
photos, ads, etc., out of the magazine. She even sat next to me,
which was still embarassing to me. By the end, there were less than 1/4 of the pages left for her $3.99. Not worth it.
And so on. If it's not reading material, it's music or the TV programs that
turn me 10 shades of red and leaves the kids scrambling for the remote control to change it ASAP before another offensive word is said.
*And we pay for that to come right through our walls to our TV. And I'm just at a place where I don't want a subscription to the GSB.
It's everywhere, you know that right?
The www has brought every ugly, unclean, disgusting thing within 12 inches of our faces, in HD no less.
I know more about Kim K@rdashian than I know about my own granma. And it's not because I'm a fan or seek out information about this very lost, very disturbed, exploited young woman. It's just out there...in the check out lines, in the headlines of every news (?!) outlet there is, as I go through the day.
She's just one example of the GSB's high profile marketing tool.
There are loads and loads of others...even the criminals get their 15 minutes of saturated fame.
So what's to be done?
How can I "live in the world and not be of the world"??
This is the question I'm asking myself today.
Can I cancel our subscription of DirecTV without a mutiny in our house?
How do I help my children put on the whole armor of God,
when they've got Lady Gaga ringing in their ears?
A day later:
Mr W came home, listened to my rant, and together we sat down and figured out how to work the Parental Controls on the remote and locked them in. I felt better.
I'm on the look-out for other proactive ways I can keep the GSB on the other side of the river as it ought to be and keep our homes safe.
What are ways that You "unsubscribe" from the GSB?
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