Whatever is true.

I want to be filled with truth.

It is easy to become numb to the unhealthy sexuality, violence, and evil in this world. A few blocks from where I live is a store that sells cheap lingerie and sex toys. I’ve never walked inside, but the window display shows half-naked manikins dressed up in lingerie.

The way our culture displays naked women’s bodies is deeply frustrating. The manikins and models represent an idealized body image for women to strive after. Companies like Dove may promote that women are beautiful in a wide variety of shapes and images, but mainstream images of idealized manikins and models are much more pervasive. When those images are plastered on billboards, magazines, and every media source, we cannot be unaffected.

Women’s bodies are sexualized in a way that is dehumanizing and degrading. It’s hard to find an adult show on Netflix that isn’t filled with unhealthy sexuality and/or violence. What would be quality shows decide to add unnecessary sexually explicit scenes and deal with darker and darker themes.

The truth is that when we are filled with sexually objectifying and violent images, we are being robbed of something greater.

Paul writes in his letter to the church in Philippi, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” 

How often are my mind and heart filled with things that fit Pauls description? Too often my mind and heart are filled with things that are the opposite of honorable and just.

These images are part of our everyday culture, but they are also things that we choose. The more numb we are, the less we realize how those dishonorable and evil images are impacting us.

This is a hard topic for me to write about. My thoughts aren’t clear, and I don’t have the answers. I have consumed sexually objectifying and awful television shows, especially during formative years of my adolescence. I once refused to admit that music lyrics affected me, arguing that only the beat matters. There is no clear black and white rule book for what is acceptable and what is not, and I know that I have deeply fallen short.

But the nearer I draw to Christ, the more I care and the less numb I become. Christ is after my heart, and he knows that what I fill myself with is going to shape my heart. I don’t want to fill it with the things of the world that lie to me. I want my thoughts, habits, and choices to be filled with things that could fit Paul’s description above.

I want to be filled with truth.