Gò0dNews for Parents
Where Do You Stand?
S
by Danette Reeves
tandards for Christians are controversial in today’s culture. Is it appropriate to watch R-rated movies? PG-13 movies? Is socially drinking acceptable? Is
are still on the driveway. How have we come to live in such a double standard world? We are just like children, keeping one foot on the
it tolerable to listen to secular music? Read “50 Shades of
driveway and one foot on the road. I think we are pushing
Gray”? Harlequin Romances? Is it passable for Christians to
the wrong line. We try to see how far we can go without
go to restaurants like Hooters (because the food is good)? Is
actually sinning. We try to live by the world’s standards
it reasonable that Christians have abortions?
enough to be accepted by our peers without offending our church family. How does this line up with God’s Word? Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” As a rabbi, His followers lived with Him. They spoke as He spoke; they emulated His actions. They sought to be as close to Him as possible. When Jesus said to flee sexual immorality, was He saying to watch as much as we can without sinning, or was He saying to stay as far away from it as we can? Maybe He was actually saying, “Stay as close to Me as you possibly can.” We cannot have it both ways. We cannot keep one foot on the road and
The sad commentary on Christianity today is that most
one foot on the driveway. Jesus said the world will know
Christians do not have any standards that are different from
His followers by their love. Is it loving to watch someone’s
the world. We seldom feel the conviction that we are to live
daughter do unspeakable things in a movie? What if it were
differently…separately from the world…more like Jesus.
your daughter? Is it loving to take lightly the song about
Have you ever told your children to stop touching each other only to have them point fingers a quarter of an inch
illicit love? Ask the woman whose husband ended up in another’s arms.
away from the other’s face and declare, “I’m not touching
When we say “Yes” to Him, we are saying “No” to
you!”? Do you state that pornography is wrong yet watch
everything that tries to pull us away from Him. I believe if
someone’s daughter show her body in a movie? Do we
we push the line to see how close we can get to Jesus, we can
sing songs to Jesus on Sundays about our love and full
make a difference in this world. So the question is, Where do
allegiance to Him, and then sing songs about falling in love
you stand?
with another woman’s man during the week? We tell our edge of the driveway and put one foot in the road, but they
20 // May 2020
About The Author
children not to go out in the road, and they go to the very
Danette Reeves teaches a Ladies’ Discipleship Class and is the Ladies Fellowship Director at First Baptist Church, Calhoun, Tennessee, as well as being active in the church music ministries. She lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, with her husband, Charlie, and is a mom to three grown children and Oma to four grandchildren.
