Your Standing Before The Lord

^"You must be blameless before the Lord your God."~Deuteronomy 18:13

I just came across this verse and I am challenged.Rather,it is a call for self-examination to see whether I am walking with the Lord.

But what determines our standing before the Lord?1 Corinthians 10:31 comes to mind.All that we participate in determines our standing before God and God is calling us to glorify him in every facet of our lives-including what we watch,listen to and read.

I remember how a month ago or so I was reading SOP and a fellow student asked what I was reading.I explained and she went on to ask if I had read 50 shades of grey.I asked what the book was about and she said it was about sexual intercourse.But I asked,why would I be reading about such?And on conversing,I found that she was also familiar with mills and boons-which are love novels as I had been.My heart felt sad for her.

I understand how she feels.I likedd 'love' novels like nobody else and it's a pity I spent years reading them.Although I used to cringe on certain parts,I always questioned why  the characters didn't marry before engaging in sexual intercourse and I always felt like the man,although perfect,lacked kindness and they were after the bodies of these women and I soon associated physical attraction,kissing and roses with love-TRUE LOVE that is.

But as I think about it,it is these novels that prompted a desire in me to have a boyfriend and by being in dating relationships I was just trying to live out what I had read,but praise be to God He intervened.And as I reflect,I can say these have affected my standing before God.I found myself day dreaming about how I'd fall inlove and be happy.And my thoughts became less pure because of the  content that is in those novels.

And I realise novels make us question God's ways and they desensitize us to His will.The more I read about how these women had fornicated and yet were happy,I wondered if fornicating was really wrong.But God quickly highlighted how evil this is.

But not only do novels make our thoughts impure but they make our expectations of a mate impure and light aired.We have this ideal of a male who's going to provide for every need and we often have this idea that we have to pampered.But what about his needs?A relationship involves self-denial on both sides.

Also,novels undermine the depth of a relationship and the roles  of each party.Although the male often takes the lead in the initiation of a relationship,the parties often don't have children nor does the female take care of the home.So,instead there is picture perfect relationship where there is no responsibility towards God,family,and mankind.Instead, these two individuals live for themselves and unfortunately it is the same with chick flicks.

All in all,we can never truly stand pure before God while viewing and reading such.All those novels,serieses and movies do is to distract us in our mission-preparing for Heaven and preparing others for Heaven.