Making Music Choices for God

I was thirteen when music became an important part of my life. As a child my mother had taught me to love beautiful, simple, sacred music. But as I reached my teen years a new kind of music captured my attention. Many of my friends were listening to new Christian music performed by popular musicians. Much of it would fit under the title of CCM (Contemporary Christian Music).

My friends had a great influence on me, and soon I began buying and listening to their music myself. I was uncomfortable with about half of the songs on each tape. Some of them were sacrilegious and secular sounding at best, but there were some really good ones too, so I would press the Fast Forward and just try to skip the bad ones.

Slowly, almost without my recognizing what was happening, my music preferences began to change. The songs which I had considered questionable now became my favorites, and I would listen to them over and over again. And the ones which I had seen as disgusting I now began to see as "Not So Bad".

Although my mom may not have seen every change in my thinking, she was concerned by the downward trend of my "Christian" music choices, and knew she had to say something. I praise the Lord for the wisdom He gave her that day. She could have forbidden me to listen to my music any more in the house, or she could have taken it away completely. But she called me to sit beside her and gently expressed her concern that my music was changing for the worse. Then she said to me "Think and pray about it. If you believe you could sit on the couch with Jesus beside you and listen to that music, then I won't say another word."

At first, I was a little annoyed. But as I thought about it I decided it couldn't hurt anything, and I didn't want to make Jesus sad. So I prayed for wisdom and carefully went through all my tapes and CD s. With each song I asked myself "What would Jesus think of this one?" I knew that my favorite "edgy" songs would have to go, because the thoughts and feelings they brought were not form God. When I was through analyzing my music my mom was even surprised with the results. I had thrown out some songs which even she was listening to.

For me the choice was simple—what will please Jesus? I won't say it was easy, but it was worth it, and it still is! Will you accept the challenge?