In today’s world, reality TV has become the new thing. You have ladies inviting cameras into their lives and even allow the world to see them act unchristian-like and actually have folks believe it. Since when was it a good thing to be a grown woman fighting on TV with another grown woman? Since when was it cool to walk around flashing money making young girls thinks that it’s easy to come by? Reality TV isn’t real and folks ought to stop buying into the hype because once the cameras stop rolling, the majority of those people go back to their real lives and it’s far from what is being shown. Yea, they make it seem all well and good for the cameras but it scripted for higher ratings. If reality TV is supposed to be real, then why are the producers telling them what to do and how to do it? It’s sad that most folks would rather sell their soul to the devil for a high price instead of standing up to be the person that God has made them. Don’t they realize the bible says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2)? They’ve allowed the world to snatch any religion they have and place it on the back burner. Do you honestly think God is pleased with the mess that folks do for fortune and fame?
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not picking on one TV show because they are all the same, messy! This isn’t the way women should be showing other young women how to act. Basketball Wives (which by the way none of them are) shows young women all they have to do is snatch up a baller and then they’ll be able to live the lavish lifestyle. However, they don’t show the struggles of being a basketball wife, the nights they have to spend alone while he travels, the other women and babies, the sitting on pins & needles wondering if he will get signed back to the team he’s on and if not if someone else will (which may mean he has no job), the constant scrutiny by the media and never having privacy because you’re now in the light. Love & Hip Hop shows the party life but it doesn’t show the battle after the party is over. Yea, most of the women were shown driving expensive cars and wearing expensive clothes and shoes but can you imagine what they had to do to get those things? I’ve learned that if it’s easily given then the cost is usually high to keep it and if you can’t pay the cost then it’s not yours to begin with. And please don’t get me started on any of the Real Housewives shows because everybody knows that none of those are real housewives. If you want somebody to look up too, follow a mom who is up at 5AM getting the kid’s lunches packed, school clothes ironed, backpacks together and the family breakfast made. Then at 7AM she is driving carpool to make sure the kids gets to school, then it’s on to grocery shopping, picking up dry cleaning, paying a few bills and then home to put away the groceries, clean & wash clothes, get dinner started and then off to pick up the kids at 4PM. She may have a soccer game or football practice and then home to finish dinner while helping with homework, feeding the kids, bath time, bed and now she has to tend to her husband who doesn’t understand why she is so tired. She finally lies down at 11PM only to start it all over again in the morning. Now, that’s a real housewife! If life was as easy as having a nanny, chef, housekeeper and driver, wouldn’t we all have it?
See, the world has gotten so caught up in getting rich and living the glamorous lifestyle that God’s word is not being placed in the midst but the bible says in Mark 4:19, “but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Worrying about fame and fortune is like a weed that has wrapped itself around the root of your rosebush. Once the weed has it wrapped up, none of the nutrients the rosebush needs reaches it and it’ll eventually die. Well, when all you desire is wealth and all you do is worry about how to get it, it’ll wrap itself around your root and then all the nutrients you need from God to grow don’t reach you anymore because you’re no longer studying the word or going to church and eventually you’ll wither. If you don’t believe me, read 1 Timothy 6:10 which say, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Haven’t you heard that having more money means more problems? Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to prosper because God says in 3 John 1:2, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” But you should prosper in God’s way which means you can never lose it.
We, as Christians, have to stop trying to conform to the world and that includes reality TV. Just because you see them wearing $300 shoes, it doesn’t mean you take your whole check to buy a pair because if you wear shoes long enough, they’ll wear out and you’ll soon need another pair. Just because TV makes it seem like having all the money in the world is the life to live doesn’t mean it is because what the cameras doesn’t show is the person who cries themselves to sleep at night because they are lonely or the one who is on the verge of suicide because their life has become too stressful. The cameras don’t show the abusive husband or the family that is almost broke and homeless. The cameras don’t show the worry on someone’s face who is trying so hard to fit in that now they’ve turned to drugs and alcohol. The cameras only show what they know the world wants to see and it’s become so glamorous that we’ll work until day comes in and then goes back out to get to that level. But the bible says in Matthew 6:19-20, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” God can give you the desires of your heart if you trust him. He can give you what you need, if you ask him. I’ve learned in my adult life that you can’t lose with the gifts that God has given you to use because what God ordains; he gives you the ways and means to maintain! Live a life that is pleasing to God and he’ll do what he does to please you!
Lakisha, the Author 