The Courage to turn it off

**Disclaimer** This post is for me mostly, I just wanted to document it so I can look back and reflect on this little decision and the lesson I learned from it.

At church a few Sundays ago, one of the speakers pulled out the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and talked about the Entertainment and Media Section.  Here's an excerpt:

"Whatever you read, listen to, or look at has an effect on you. Therefore, choose only entertainment and media that uplift you. Good entertainment will help you to have good thoughts and make righteous choices. It will allow you to enjoy yourself without losing the Spirit of the Lord.


While much entertainment is good, some of it can lead you away from righteous living. Offensive material is often found in web sites, concerts, movies, music, videocassettes, DVDs, books, magazines, pictures, and other media. Satan uses such entertainment to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal and exciting. It can mislead you into thinking that everyone is doing things that are wrong.

Have the courage to walk out of a movie or video party, turn off a computer or television, change a radio station, or put down a magazine if what is being presented does not meet Heavenly Father’s standards. Do these things even if others do not. Let your friends and family know that you are committed to keeping God’s standards. You have the gift of the Holy Ghost, which will give you strength and help you make good choices."

Now even though I'm not a youth anymore, in fact, I can't believe it's been 15 years since I graduated from High School( I know, it's shocking to think about) this talk truly touched my heart.  You see, I have a little confession to make...There is a show on TV, on one of the regular non-cable channels (and NO I'm not going to tell you which one it is) that I faithfully watched all last season.  Now, it was one of those shows that I had to wait until late at night to watch so the kids wouldn't see it, that had beautiful characters in it doing not so beautiful things.  I rationalized that it wasn't a big deal if I watched it, that it wasn't that harmful, that I'm older and married so the situations it presented didn't tempt me into bad behavior. 

Well, after the talk I started having little feelings that I should stop watching the show.  I SO wanted to ignore them, after all, the season ended with a cliffhanger and I REALLY wanted to know how it ended.  I even recorded the first couple of this season on my DVR, but didn't watch them right away, giving myself a little time to REALLY DECIDE if I was going to keep watching it.  Well, the other day I did it, I DELETED THEM OFF THE DVR..just a couple buttons pushed and away it went.  For the rest of that day, I couldn't believe I did it and admit I was a little sad about it.  But now, looking back with a few days perspective I discovered something....I DON'T REALLY MISS IT...shocking I know...I wouldn't have believed it.  The people that I spent so much time speculating about last season and couldn't wait to see rarely come to my mind anymore and that hour each week has just been freed up for other things, and honestly I FEEL GOOD ABOUT MY CHOICE...now in the whole scheme of things, this was a little thing I did, that some would say wouldn't have a whole lot of impact, but for me, it REAFFIRMED that I do have the AGENCY to CHOOSE for myself what I will and will not entertain myself with.  That I am in control and if I don't want my children to see it maybe I shouldn't be watching it either. 

So again, I just wanted to take a minute and document it so that some day, my family will know that I learned this lesson and that I know that they can have the COURAGE to choose good wholesome entertainment for themselves as well.