What we eat becomes part of us, for good or ill. It can bring health and it can cause damage. This is why we have labels on food so we know what it is we’re consuming and make choices.
In the same way, the thoughts we allow into our lives, the images that become our focus, the ideas and concepts upon which we dwell, can become part of, as it were, our soul and transform us.
In our culture there are so many images of things that are dark, sad, unholy, and given to our baser instincts (after all there’s a lot of money to be made on baser instincts) that it can be overwhelming to try to guard our eyes and our thoughts from such things. They come at us as from every angle and they are, sometimes it seems, omnipresent.
Perhaps it is one of the martyrdoms of our time to attempt to stand in the face of such a flood and choose to fill our hearts and minds with that which is holy and good. It takes deliberate and conscious effort and often profound struggle to be that kind of person, a person who stands in a world of darkness with a heart only for the Light. Yet, I suppose if we’re going to be anything like what God wants us to be, stand we must.
The Beautiful Path 