Philippians 4: 8

The thing about horrid sights is they progressively loose their edge the longer you look.
There was a time that innocence is all we knew. There was a time that the dark branches in the woods of Snow White terrified me, and the serpent in Adam and Eve cartoons made me cry.
We begin life so acutely attuned to the what is good and what is evil. There are good guys and there are bad guys, and we don’t recognize those four letter words.
Teaching my beautiful five year olds has taught me a lot about desensitization. They are at a bit of a turning point in their young lives. Depending on what Mommy and Daddy let them watch and play, they could start crying over the Jaguar in Tarzan or they could glaze over, bored and unimpressed. It is the beginning of the time that the sparks of innocent start fizzling out.
Paul told the Philippian church, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” I believe that, however few, we all still hold on to some our “sparks of innocence.” How precious they are, how stubbornly we must protect them.
It our fast and visual world, it is beyond easy to kill off most or all of our sensitivity, and go meet our mean world all calloused and cruel. In fact, our society tells us that accomplishing this is strength and bravery.
I disagree. We are not called to fall to and conquer the standard of an evil world. No, we are called to transcend and set an example worth reaching. God wants us to revel in the beauty of his creation and the wisdom of His people. He has given us too much beauty to justify such an interest in the ugly. We must be set apart in this way. We are, after all, the salt of the earth.
Please know that I am not preaching. Conversely I am lecturing myself. This is a daily struggle that is supremely difficult, especially in college. But we must weather on. The battle will not be won in one day, but in the fighting there is honor and there is pride. So fight on