Television

One weekend last summer, I realized that Woody and I had spent an ENTIRE Saturday watching NCIS. We had not spent one moment with our children, except Konnor, who was an infant, and we didn't really have a choice. That Sunday, we made a choice: in July we got rid of TV. I mean, we still HAVE a television, but it is solely used for watching movies and our LIVING room is no longer CENTERED around it..And neither is our life.
It is funny, what you become desensitized to when you hear it all day every day.
I never knew exactly how inappropriate TV is. I mean, I knew how bad some of it is, but I didn't realize the stuff I had become unaware of. We also usually only listen to Church music. Not always. Sometimes we will turn on a country station, but the kids LOVE the primary song CD's I bought them, so I would rather they listen to that.
Well, recently I have been going to the gym..With going to the gym, part of my little 'bubble' has been popped. The television is on there, and I busted out an MP3 player to work out with. WOW! How I have changed. I find myself skipping songs I used to love because their message or language really bothers me. I find myself bugged by certain commercials. Commercials I would not want my children to see! I am to the point I want to change all of the songs on my MP3 player because they don't make me feel good. And I am going to the gym so that I feel good.
This is all so very bizarre to me. I don't remember ever really having limits on what I could watch. I am pretty sure I was watching rated R movies by 12. Cursing and crude language has never bothered me, and at points in my life have been very big parts of my vocabulary. I never thought most of what I watched or listened to was 'that bad'. (I know, Grey's is an exception. I knew it was bad, and I still loved it. However, I haven't even watched my old episodes on DVD since I got rid of the TV.) Then, I got rid of it all. Now, when I hear it or see it, I realize how blessed I am to have been given the guidance to get rid of the the negative influence of television.