Grace In Practice

Guarding Your Eyes And Ears

What we see and what we hear shape who we are becoming. Our eyes and ears are gates, and every gate has the power to either protect or pollute the soul. Scripture reminds us, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6:22).

Practicing grace means being intentional about what we allow through those gates. Entertainment, conversations, music, images, and voices all leave imprints. Some build us up, while others quietly erode faith, purity, and peace.

In Hebrew, the word  (shamar) means to guard, to watch, to keep. It is the same word used when God placed Adam in Eden “to tend and keep it.” To shamar our eyes and ears is to recognize that they are not casual openings but sacred spaces that must be watched carefully.

Grace in practice looks like turning away from images that stir impurity. It looks like choosing silence over gossip. It looks like listening to words that edify and rejecting the voices that bring fear, doubt, or confusion.

When we guard our eyes and ears, we are not being restrictive. We are cultivating purity so that grace can flow unhindered through us. What enters the gate will eventually shape the heart and from the heart flow the issues of life.