The Choice Is Yours

When I was in high school there was a rather popular movie made. I loved this movie and watched it many times. This is significant because this was during the late 70’s. No HBO, no Netflix, no streaming on the internet, and very few VHS players. To see a movie more than once involved spending money at the movie theater, which I willing did. And then… I bought the record album, and sang to it constantly. Yep, I was hopelessly devoted…have you guessed the movie by now?

Yes, Grease was the word back then, especially for young teen girls who wanted to be Sandy. The sweet, wholesome girl who had met a sweet, wholesome guy on vacation…and then she discovers he is a shallow pig who is willing to brush her off so he can hold on to his bad boy image in the local gang community. Obviously she should count herself lucky to have seen his true nature and move on to a boy with more substance of character! But no, she instead jumps on the shallow bandwagon herself and transforms herself into…well, honestly? Not the type of girl I would want my teenage son to date!

Ah, such is youth. But what about that idea of “wholesomeness”? Is it an antiquated notion? Something that is laughable in our modern world? Would you want someone to call you wholesome? What if someone called your 12, 14, or 16 year old daughter wholesome? Hmmm…it may not sound so bad after all.

According to most dictionaries, wholesome means;

Conducive to or suggestive of good health and physical well-being, or conducive to or promoting moral well-being.

Well, I want to take that just a little bit further. Proverbs 15:4 states;

“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life…”

Ouch! I just hate it when the tongue gets involved! Which is why the book of James is the most worn part of my Bible, I have to read it a lot to stay on track! But author Rebecca Barlow Jordan says it far better than I ever could…

Wholesomeness is choosing to participate in only the things that are helpful and spiritually uplifting in my life. It is a decision I can make to let God speak through me only those words that will edify and help others.

A decision I make. I have a choice of whether to build others up, or tear them down. I decide whether to participate in things that are uplifting and bring glory to God, or that which pulls others, and my own  faith, down. Should it really be such a difficult decision to choose wholesomeness?

In Him ~Marla