Happy Monday morning to you! 

After a soggy weekend here in the Midwest, we are enjoying a cold but sunny day. 

Russ has already been out for a walk/run around the block and reported there is, literally, not a cloud in the sky. 

I can attest that the sun is shining full force because it is showing a badly needed window washing project that will have to wait a few more days. 

As I am thinking what to share this morning, I am mulling over the danger of “political correctness” as a guide for my moral behavior and decisions. 

Case in point. 

I have a few hashtags I like to follow on Instagram and one of them is #shoplocal. 

Through this hashtag, I get a glimpse of small businesses all around the country and the world.

I find them interesting and inspiring for the most part, although not all small businesses pander what interests me or even what I agree with, necessarily. 

I pause on the ones I like and scroll past the ones that are not necessarily in line with my tastes or even beliefs. 

But occasionally I see one that is just offensive. 

Instagram offers me the option of “Reporting” or “Don’t show for this hashtag”.

I never report them because that is not my place, but I do choose to ask to be spared any more  along the lines of this kind of advertising by tapping the “don’t show” option. 

However, I do so with a nagging voice in the back of my head suggesting that I am wrong to be offended by something. 

I hear the cynicism of media and talking heads and comedians who make fun of people like me and the Facebook people that just love to carry on arguments on other peoples opinion posts.  

But that is not the voice of God. 

I know what is okay and what is not okay to view on my phone. 

I have been given the right to politely say, “No thank you.”

And in exercising that right, I am not “judging” someone who is fine with receiving the same kind of material. I am not protesting that it exists. 

I am choosing to eliminate it from my personal experience. 

In saying this, I am not suggesting that if I see something that is blatantly exploiting someone  I do not speak up.

I am talking about areas where I know God has set a standard, and the loud, boasting voice of popular culture attempts to drown out His still small voice showing me the way to live like Jesus. 

We may think we are immune to “peer pressure” but the voices of a new “morality” are pretty persuasive right now. 

I pray as God’s people we would continue to train our ears to hear Him say…This is the way. Now walk in it. 

His ways are gracious and merciful and kind, but they also hold to a standard set by Him. 

Stay in the Word as you walk through the world <3 

You are precious to Him.