PROTECTING OUR MINDS

June 28, 2023

 

The first recorded use of the phrase "garbage in, garbage out" dates back to 1957. However, George Fuechsel, an IBM programmer and instructor, is generally credited with coining the term in the early 1960s. It is a common computer term that captures the reality that the output of an algorithm is only as good as the quality of the input it receives.

It’s generally used of computers, but it’s foundational to humans also. What we let come through our eye and ear gates is what we think about and …

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7)

THE GREAT SCHEME

The Apostle Paul reminded us in Ephesians 6 that the devil has schemes. These are not random but deliberate and strategic methods he uses to keep us from God. To “steal, kill, and destroy” people.

One of the massive tools he has used, particularly since the 1950s, is SCREENS (Television, movies, phones, internet … you name it). He has made mindless entertainment so accessible that very few can resist.

80% of Americans watch TV every day. The average adult watches three hours per day. If you reach 78, that’s 15 years of your life! Counting TV and screen time on other devices, children spend 4-6 hours a day looking at a screen. Teens spend up to 9 hours. This is not counting the input they receive from listening to music.

The content of this time is often mindless at best and horribly destructive at worst. Studies estimate a child will see 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence on TV by the time they graduate high school.

Satan knows what he’s doing. To vainly think that filling our minds with such information does not drive us is ludicrous. We are what we think.

OUR PROTECTION

Through the Scripture, God gave us a remedy for controlling this phenomenon thousands of years ago.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

The grid for our watching, reading, and listening is profoundly clear. We should evaluate all our screen time and listening time to these parameters. We should evaluate everything that we allow into our minds and our family’s minds with these questions:

• Is this true?
• Is this honorable?
• Is this right?
• Is this pure?
• Is this lovely?
• Is this of good repute?
• Is this excellent?
• Is this worthy of praise?

This is the input we must put into the computer of our minds and the seedbed of our souls. “Dwell (let your mind absorb) on these things,” Paul says.

If we don’t, we will most certainly pay a high price in our character and what flows from our lives. Remember the phrase: G.I.G.O

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