Magazines are everywhere; they’re at the gas station, grocery store, and library, as well as regular occurrences in our mailboxes. Many of us often flip through them to look at the pictures and read a few of the articles without giving it a second thought, but maybe we should think twice.
In preparation for this article, I recently flipped through a few teen magazines, and found some pretty vulgar things. Titles such as “How to hook the hottest guy in the room,” “The Pill,” and “Using Protection” fill the covers of these magazines. Inside the magazines are even worse! Girls are encouraged to take condoms with them on dates if they think intercourse might take place; almost every picture shows fashion as something that reveals most of our body; and gossip about celebrities is running rampant.
Some of you are probably nodding your heads in agreement, and others are probably shrugging your shoulders and thinking, “Who cares? It’s not that big a deal.” The thing is, it is a big deal! If you don’t think that looking at things like this affects you, stop and read The Heart of the Matter before finishing this article.
Now that we’ve read the article, and are considering the fact that maybe small things actually are “that bad,” what can we do about it? We love the fashion articles, the beauty tips, dating information, and advice columns, right? How can we give that up? The good news is that we don’t have to! We can continue to read the articles we like, but in a different way.
How to do it
Find good magazines! Pierce My Heart is expanding and changing to include the things we like in normal magazines, but from a godly perspective. There are other decent, godly magazines out there too (if you’ve found one, leave a comment about it below this article).
Lose the bad. This is the hard part. You have to make a conscious decision to rid your life of any and all trashy magazines, then follow through on that decision, so that you will only be filling your heart and mind with worthy thoughts, as we’re encouraged to do in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, 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.” In order to fully do this, we must get rid of fashion magazines that tell us to dress in revealing ways, magazines that gossip about celebrities, and magazines that encourage us to be sexually active with people we’re not married to. I don’t need to name the names – you know which magazines I’m talking about. If you’ve subscribed, un-subscribe, even if you lose money. If your mom buys them for you when she goes to the store, talk to her about it, and ask her to support you in your quest to become a purer person this year. If you’re going to a friend’s house that has inappropriate magazines you like to read, take other reading material instead, whether it’s a book, another magazine, or articles from this magazine that you print off.
Notice the difference. When you haven’t been reading those magazines for about a month, you’ll start to notice that you have a better self image (you’re no longer seeing airbrushed models), a purer mind (you’re no longer being encouraged to engage in sinful behaviors), and a cleaner heart.
Be renewed
Ask God to renew your heart this year, so that you will desire to be pure, inside and out. Make sure the choices you make with magazines affect your desire to be pure; rejoice in that pureness; and meditate on this verse: “The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing in the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:8).
Davonne Parks
This is a great article! It’s one that needed to be written, as well. A couple of years ago, I had a subscription to a magazine, but found that it contained basically gossip, inappropriate dress, and worldly thoughts! It eventually became something that just seemed like “empty reading”. It wasn’t helping me become a better Christian! Now I like to look at my mothers cooking magazines to find new, tasty recipes. I also like to read “Discovery” from Apologetics Press, even though it is geared toward younger children. It still has some very biblically sound, informative articles, and puzzles, too. As for reading, books like “Straight Talk For Teens”, “Don’t Kiss Toads”, “Girl To Girl”, “Waves of Change”, and many, many more are AMAZING books written by Christian authors, geared toward teens and the issues we face today. You can read one lesson, and it’s so much better than reading a magazine you saw sitting on the rack at the store! 🙂 There’s such good, clean reading material out there, and I can promise you–you will see your mind and heart becoming purer as you stray from worldly magazines. 🙂
Teen Virtue by Vicki Courtney is a pretty good magazine. I don’t always agree with her on all matters of scripture, but her magazine for girls deals with tackling boy problems, family problems, etc in a godly manner.