Your view becomes you

Have you ever thought about doing something bad? Have you ever viewed something that made you think about doing something bad? Finally, have you ever purposely viewed something that made you either do or want to do something bad? That is exactly how our minds work, and unfortunately that is what pornography is all about. It's about people doing things that they shouldn't so that people will watch and do things that they shouldn't. It roots itself in lust and creates monsters out of people that may have been raised to have good strong morals. It's very hard to undo views and scenes from movies. I know that there are a whole lot of times when I am talking about the cross, or talking about what Jesus did for us that I picture the movie the Passion of Christ. Those images of the beating and the blood and his side bursting open all come rushing into my mind. Why? Because our minds are banks and what we put in will eventually come out of there.
I am working hard to help Alexa get better at softball, and one of the ares we are working hard at is visualization. I am trying to help her visualize and store images when she does good. When she throws a great pitch, or has a great hit I immmediately tell her to visualize what she just did. I also, on the flip side, do my best to have her erase the bad pitches, the swings and misses and the not so great moments. Unfortunately you can't erase them, I can only work hard to help her remember the good ones and not focus on the bad ones.
Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
There you have it, we need to offer our minds and bodies as living sacrifices and we cannot do that unless we are renewing our minds regularly. We must renew in our minds a clean and pure thought process and this cannot be done with some of the things we are viewing on television, the internet and in magazines(I assume those are still around). Every time you put a new image into your head, it is stored for good.
I did a lesson as a young youth pastor where I had one of our teen guys pose in a pair of short shorts and a bikini top. We looked at that image in the opening during part of the lesson and then we went on like it never happened. Then, we finished up the lesson and I asked the kids how many of them could remember that picture an hour later, everyone started giggling and laughing. No one was able to erase that image, well, guess what you never will. Our only hope when these things happen is to not look at those images that are not pleasing to God, and focus on good images that will not cloud our thoughts and minds.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!