You Are What You Ingest

"Most millionaires can't tell you who got kicked off the island."

---Dave Ramsey

We have all heard the old cliche', "You are what you eat." I would like to slightly shift this familiar phrase to, "You are what you ingest---both physically and mentally". Too many of us exist on a mental diet of television and media which consists of stimulating "junk food" that leads to mental malnutrition and poor spiritual and emotional health. 

Much of the media today exposes us to antisocial behavior performed by the incompetent and insane. At the other end of the spectrum, we are being exposed to superheroes with superhuman abilities, unnatural strength, and unattainable beauty and handsomeness. A wide range of values are being beamed into us via the media, most of which are negative or out of touch with reality.

Years ago, I heard a parable which I have continued to ponder as I choose what media I expose myself to. It is called "The Stranger":

"A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later. As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God. Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening. He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn't seem to mind, but sometimes Mom would quietly get up - while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places - and go to her room read her Bible and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave. You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house - not from us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four-letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge the stranger was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn't permit alcohol in his home - not even for cooking. But the stranger felt he needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (too much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger. As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents. Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive. But if I were to walk into my parents' den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name? We always called him TV.

 And now he has a wife. Her name is Internet."

(Author Unknown)

As with most things in life, there is virtue and vice concerning our media intake. The media can be a very beneficial tool for gathering and sharing information, and for connecting with the world around us. We simply need to find a balance and feed our minds with uplifting and edifying material. After all, "You are what you ingest!"