Why I Don’t Watch Scary Movies

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After spending the last few days doing all that moving across the state entails, it feels good to sit down and write again! Today, I wanted to talk about one of the decisions that my husband and I made that might not be so popular. We choose to completely shun scary movies. This includes movies about ghosts, demons, possessed dolls (my husband’s worst nightmare!), killers, kidnappers and just about any other gory, supernaturally messed up movie. We didn’t always shy away from scary movies though. Actually, we had quite a few at home date nights that centered around the latest paranormal activity movie.

Here are a few things that we took into consideration that led us to make this choice:

 

Spiritual Doors Can Be Opened by What We Watch

Our first apartment had a lot of demonic activity that was actually visible. We experienced intense spiritual warfare in that place and we had to be vigilant about closing every door possible. I’m not bold enough to say that every scary movie you watch is going to invite dark things into your life, but the possibility is definitely there. I think media has a huge influence in our daily actions and I don’t want that type of thing to influence my thought life or the atmosphere of my home.

Scary Movies Give Us a Spirit of Fear

The point of scary movies is to scare you (duh!). When I watched a scary movie, I’d be paranoid for days after. I remember I used to love these movies about people who died in the most random of ways and they made me scared to even drive behind a truck carrying logs! I’d literally bring a spirit of fear upon myself, which is the opposite of what God gives me. In a way, I’d be fighting something that is my spiritual heritage just so I could have an adrenaline rush. I struggle with anxiety anyway, so I really don’t need to be watching things that make it worse.

 

I Want to Live a Fearless Life for my Sons

As I mentioned above, I have horrible anxiety. So there are days where my own shadow scares me! I need every ounce of fearlessness possible to live a faith-filled life for my sons. I want to pass on a legacy of faith and in order for me to be a good example of this, I can’t have scary movies in my house. I also want to teach my sons the importance of guarding their hearts against anything that will wreak havoc on their spirits, which might mean something different to them, but either way that example is there and it’s the norm. Read this post by Sarah Bessey about guarding your gates. You won’t regret it!

I Want to Have a Positive View of the World

In scary movies, the world is portrayed as dark. Darkness wins in a lot of them and you don’t see a lot of light break through. I’m not naive enough to say that the world is all sunshine and roses. Actually, I’ve lost a lot of faith in the world, but I want to be able to see my world with the clearest, most light-filled view possible. So I choose the positive where I can. Note that this does not mean being aloof and unrealistic. But, watching made up stories that are mere possibilities about the world is entirely different than keeping up to date with current events, which can totally be a horror show in itself.

Since we stopped watching scary movies about  5 years ago, our spirits have gotten a bit more peaceful. It has taken a bit of will-power and it hasn’t been easy, but most areas where you feel conviction are a struggle to change.

Have you laid something down to gain peace in your life?