What are You Listening To?

I have been enjoying reading a classic allegory by John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim's Progress), entitled The Holy War. Written in the 1600's, he describes a town called Mansoul which was created for the delight of King Shaddai. As the story begins, John Bunyan carefully explains that the only way to enter into the town is through one of the "impregnable gates", and the only way the gates can be opened is by the permission of the people within. As you read on you find that the evil, giant Diabolus, who is an enemy of the King, discovers that the town of Mansoul is the king's prize possession. So he decides to invade and take over the town, of which he is successful. The part that impacted me the most was how he accomplishes this victory - it is by sending his men through the "Ear Gate", which is main entrance into the town.

I will not spoil the ending, as it is a very valuable read, but I want to draw out a very important truth that John Bunyan works so hard to communicate... the town of Mansoul's most vulnerable and important point of entry was "The Ear Gate".

What are we listening to? What are we allowing our children to listen to? I know it is easy to brush off that question and feel like lyrics, movies, negative friendships are not that dangerous - but do we really know that to be for sure?

We all probably know the beautiful verse from Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it." But do you know the verse that precedes that one? Proverbs 22:5 says, "In the paths of the wicked lie thorns and snares, but he who guards his soul stays far from them."

I believe one of the best ways to "guard our soul" is by guarding what we allow through our own "Ear Gate". Just as within the allegory of Mansoul, it is not because the King wanted to spoil their lives or ruin their fun, but because He saw the dangers that existed beyond the "gates" if they allowed those influences in. I desire to share that we need to be so cautious with our "gates" not because of legalism but because of wisdom. It is easy to become accustomed to words, talk, theories and overall negative influences without realizing how we are being affected deep within. For me, it wasn't until I had removed some of those subtleties from my life and then was exposed to them a few years later, that I was shocked at what I had accepted as "okay".

Let's ask the Holy Spirit to show us what we may be listening to, that is allowing the enemy access to our precious "gates" in the town of our "Mansoul". The battle is constant and it is real and there is not time in this day and age to sit on the fence and see what happens with the choices we make. Would we not rather look back twenty years from now, when our children have reached adulthood and realize we erred on the side of caution instead of the side of folly?

God loves us too much to allow us to be content with having our "gates" infiltrated - He loves our children too much to look the other way when we allow them to hear and take in what is not honouring to Him ~ may we take a fresh look at how to guard our gates.