Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways. Ps 119:37
The other morning I was scrolling the top news headlines and came across one that piqued my interest. The headline read, “Top Five Food Trends.” Since I love cooking and baking this particular trend was something I wanted to check out. When I was growing up I remember my mom always collecting recipes from magazines that pictured either a beautiful entree or dessert.
These days you can find whats trending in food, fashion, career choices, health and fitness and even relationships. Anything that we want to be “in the know” about at any given moment we can look to social media and find what’s trending to inform our choices.
The word “trending” defined as, the general course or prevailing tendency; drift. Trending is not limited to social media. The moment we walk into a restaurant, mall, or grocery store, we are blasted with worldly images, and pop-culture icons. Even if we don’t willingly participate in these things — the sights, sounds, and messages we see and hear invade our minds and influence our perspective. We too as Christian women find ourselves wanting to be a part of what’s trending while neglecting the godly virtues that produce our true life purpose and God’s great glory.
I’ve learned firsthand that it’s not enough for me to simply “disagree” or “disapprove” of the worldly trends that assault my senses, but to proactively turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things, as Psalm 119 prescribes.
I read this quote that has impacted me greatly, “A pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring.” The popular idea that Christians should become well acquainted in the trends of modern culture in order to reach the unsaved for Christ, I’ve found to be one of the very reasons that the church has dimmed down it’s beautiful and powerful light in the midst of darkness. Guarding my heart and mind against worldliness is a far better witness to unbelievers than allowing myself to grow comfortable with the ungodly and world-like trends that are always in my face.
Ladies, let’s learn to develop the habit of turning away from what’s trending and fill our minds with God’s Truth! What an amazing, cleansing, refreshing effect this will have on our perspective, purpose and relationship with Christ and what a witness to the world.