Old Woman or Young Woman . . . . . . . . . . R-Rated or Uplifting

o Should you be picky about what to entertain yourself (and your family) with?

o Why worry about seeing or hearing anything objectionable - haven’t you seen or heard it all before?

o Aren't violence, sex, and crude language all just a part of real life?

§ ‘Ever seen that black and white drawing (often illustrated in psych 101 texts) that you’re sure is a picture of a beautiful young woman, until someone points out to you that, if you look at it another way, it looks like a picture of an old hag? It often comes with separate pictures of the young woman and the old hag, so you know what to look for. But it’s really the same picture; what you see usually depends on which secondary picture you’ve just looked at (i.e.: the young woman or the old hag). Similarly, we tend to see life a certain way, depending on what experiences have influenced us - where our focus is.

§ Some people like to point out, in an effort to justify the same in entertainment, that the scriptures contain many stories of violence and immorality. Victor L. Brown, Jr., in his book, Human Intimacy, responds to that thought. He points out that the difference between the movies and the Bible is that the Bible reveals the natural consequences of such actions, whereas Hollywood often portrays glamorous, unrealistic consequences (which are misleading).

o One last question: Are the scenarios left imprinted in your mind after you watch a movie, things that you want to remember because they have been an uplifting influence or . . . maybe not?

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It’s not what happened in my past, but how I handle it in the present, that affects my future.

It's not where I am, but the direction I'm going in, that matters most.