I enjoy listening to the radio as I drive around town. I like soft rock and I pride myself on knowing most of the lyrics to most of the songs. I will even confess to singing along with the radio, although I won’t claim to have a great voice.
When my kids are in the car, I automatically become more sensitive to the lyrics of the songs. It’s kind of like when you’re watching a movie with your mother. A bed scene or a bit of language takes place and you turn bright red, although it probably wouldn’t have bothered you if your mom wasn’t sitting right there. When I’ve got the radio on and something questionable starts to play, my sensibilities are on high alert.
Even if a child doesn’t understand the meaning behind the lyrics, there’s a spirit that accompanies them, and we all know how sensitive children are to the Spirit. They sense when something’s not right, and they know, even if it’s on a subconscious level, that what they’re hearing is not right. In addition, the brain has a fabulous capacity to record and then to play back at odd times. Things we might not have thought of for years are suddenly retrieved for us, triggered by a comment, smell, or sound. Things we hear as children will come back to haunt us later.
Even stations that flaunt themselves as being “family friendly” play songs that aren’t appropriate for children to hear. It’s quite funny to listen to a commercial in which they are praising themselves for their commitment to family values, only to have the very next song they play be full of innuendo. Innuendo is a dangerous thing. It lures us in with the façade of innocence, and then the day comes when that façade falls away and we see it for what it really is.
As we’re listening to music with our children, it’s good to expose them to different styles of music, musicians and composers. But we should always keep the end goal in mind. We might not find any harm to enjoying our old favorites from the 1980’s, but if the lyrics go contrary to the things of the Spirit, we need to flip them off. Our children are just like little sponges.
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