Any teen's response is to want to go, to be with friends, to be a part of whatever is happening. Every teen also knows the dreaded moment when they have to ask their parents, and the parents either approve or veto whatever entertainment was being requested.
Often parents have a black-and-white line in the sand-- whether that be the rating, the number of cuss words, or the sexual content. And I'll be the first to say that I like lines, I like clear-cut right and wrong. It makes it easier. But in our lives in today's world, there's more than a few things in the gray area.
On a recent retreat I was on, the theme was holiness. Understanding God's holiness, and learning to be holy because that is what He has called us to. We are called to be set apart, a nation of priests, God's witnesses on earth as if He were making His appeal through us (Leviticus 20:26, 2 Corinthians 5:20 and 1 Peter 1:16)
In talking about how we become holy, we looked at Hebrews 12:
"...Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles...Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."
I think when we're deciding our standards or considering our convictions regarding what Netflix shows we watch or what music groups we listen to, we so often forget to put it through the filter of holiness. Of set-apart. I know I am guilty of going off of someone else's standard that I respect, like a mentor or a pastor. "They think it's okay, so it must be." I forget to hold it up to Christ's standard.
Psalm 101:3 says, "I will set before my eyes no vile thing..." Learning to be holy means getting rid of the vile, and clinging to the pure.
What we watch, what we entertain ourselves with, and what we listen to is how we begin to think. I recently saw a TV show -- one that is widely accepted in the Christian community -- where a guy was breaking up with his girlfriend, and the dialogue went, "I just have to go, but... let's have sex one more time, and if you've got any spare money, that'd be great."
If this is what we are entertained by, then no wonder we have problems aligning our behaviors with God's standard of holiness. Our thoughts transfer to actions.
Hebrews 3 says, "Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess."
There's no "ten commandments" for how to be holy; but my challenge to myself and to each person reading is this: do we actually bring to God our standards, or do we let our peers or our pastor define what is holy for us? Because remember, we're only accountable to Him. Not to anyone else.