Chocolate Won't Make Me Fat!

Since I don't LIKE chocolate, it doesn't matter if I eat an entire bag of Hershey's kisses every single day of 2011 and don't exercise at all, I won't get fat!  Now, just to be clear, I LOVE chocolate, but I thought this example really made a lot of sense (probably BECAUSE I love chocolate!).  I think we can all agree that it doesn't matter whether or not you like chocolate, if you eat an entire bag of Hershey's kisses every single day of 2011 without ever exercising, you WILL get fat!

I don't know about you, but my life is FULL of media.  I love music and listen to it constantly.  One of my favorite things to do is watch movies (at home OR in the theater).  I enjoy a hand full of television shows, and I read a ton, too.  I also enjoy activities like reading my Bible, reading other godly help books (like Girls Gone Wise), praying, discussing with others what God is teaching me, and going to church.  If I did the things on the first part of the list, but never or rarely did the things on the last part of the list,  I'd be in bad shape!  After all, if you eat the chocolate (worldly media) without ever exercising (walking with God), you're not going to be healthy!

Chapter 2 of Girls Gone Wise discusses the source of the Wise & Wild girls' counsel: the Wild girl turns to the world (Proverbs 5:5-6); the Wise girl turns to the Word (Psalm 1:1-2)!  I really appreciated Mary Kassian's view on media. It's not wrong to enjoy movies, tv, music, books, etc., but if you don't fight the worldliness with the Truth of God's Word, then you will quickly adopt the worldly messages usually present (sometimes subtly, sometimes not). The statistics given in this chapter astounded me.  I haven't done my own research on it, but according to GGW, if you fall into the "average" category of hours spent watching television, movies, etc., you will have spent 40 entire years of your life on media by the time you're 65! Now if that's true for you, that means you only spent 25 of your 65 years doing other activities... most of which is probably sleeping!  There's absolutely no possible way you can "eat" that much "chocolate" with such a small amount of "exercise" and not get fat!  Does that make sense?  It does for me (and I guess since I'm the one doing the study, that's really what matters!)!  

After reading this chapter, I am NOT compelled to gather every single DVD, CD, VHS, and book that I own  and throw it in the garbage, but I am challenged to think more proactively about just how much time I'm spending on these things that influence my way of thinking.  

One last thing that stuck out to me in this chapter. Mary Kassian says, "The mistake of the Wild Thing is that she doesn't intentionally think about how to live a godly life."  The Wild girl falls into sin because she isn't combating the worlds counsel with God's counsel. Living a godly life isn't something that just comes naturally; it's something we have to put great effort into- something we have to do intentionally.  Are you and I making the intentional decision to combat the World's counsel with the Word's counsel?  I hope so!