be careful little ears

Those of you who know me pretty well know that music is very important to me. It's a gift that my parents gave me through the school I attended, the music in our church, and the piano lessons...years of lessons.  Here in our home, our lives are saturated with it . 

One thing I discovered, because of how much we listen to music, is how amazing my kids' memories were (and are). They picked up the lyrics to songs very quickly. I will openly admit that one of my downfalls is that I like (almost) all kinds of music and have not always been so cautious about what plays in our home. Now, I am a bit more cautious because there are certain lyrics you just don't want to hear coming out of a 4 year old's mouth. And even more importantly, those words should not be going into their heart.

A friend of mine had a convicting conversation with me (and she didn't even know it - she is so sweet!) She discussed how her children would not recognize any secular songs because the have only heard KLOVE and AIR 1.  She herself wouldn't even recognize any because that's all she listened to also.

Wow! Talk about conviction. And again, she'll probably read this and feel bad knowing it was her, but I am grateful for those words!  For now, I am so much more cautious about what my children hear.  We listen to Christian music (and let me tell you, when your 4 year old songs the lyrics of worship songs in the back of your car, it's hard not to want to cry) but we also listen to swing, surf rock, Disney songs, golden oldies, classical music, and my son likes a bit of techno because then he can do his robot moves.

A long time ago, my mom told me something that really stuck. She said I should be careful what books I read because every word went in through my eyes, into my mind, as well as into my heart. I feel the same about music. It goes in through my ears but ends up in my heart. She said to be careful because out of the mouth overflows the heart (that's scripture talk - Luke 6:45). In other words, what I store in my heart may someday come out of my mouth. 

Here's my mental image: picture me as an 80 something year old lady in my wheel chair, suffering from some kind of dementia (it could happen!) Do I really want the words coming out of my mouth to be lyrics from any of today's top performers? There's not a lot of clean stuff coming out of their mouths!  I'd rather have songs of praise or hymns or "some good ol' gospel tunes" coming out of this little old lady mouth.











There's a song my son learned in Preschool this year and one of the verses goes like this: "Oh be careful, little ears what you hear, because the Father up above is looking down in love. Oh be careful little ears what you hear." My job is to guard their hearts. But I can't forget that my responsibility is also to guard my own heart.

KC