My thoughts, others words

One more thing before I retire for today...

"He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary."

"I am also concerned that our honorable desire to protect ourselves from the world's evils too easily and too often leads to spiritual weakness rather than immunity. To protect children from secular entertainment's harms by reading and watching alongside, teaching them to sift stories for truth and falsehood, trains to grow from digesting simple work to more complex work—to borrow a Scriptural phrase, "from milk to meat." This, I believe, is more fruitful than blinding them to the true complexities of the world. Learning to grapple with the world's sinfulness—and their own—prepares them to resist temptation rather than merely hide from it. Jesus did not wear blinders to save him from being tempted; neither did the Apostles. Remember, the full armor of God is for folks on the battlefield. Of course, parents should be vigilant in protecting children; they should also teach train them up to "renew their minds" and become aggressive thinkers so they can stare temptation in the face and, with God's grace, remain unpolluted."

-----------------------

I am not sure if this is Jeffrey Overstreets', Beth Rambo's, or John Milton's, but whoever wrote this, I agree with them completely!