My Teen Idols

Their pictures lined the wall of the narrow hallway with the blue carpet which led to the bathroom with the blue floral wallpaper.

Images of cute, young heartthrobs, their pictures carefully cut out of teen magazines and taped onto colored construction paper which posed as frames. A shrine to those we puppy love crushed on.

Bobby Sherman. Davy Jones. B. J. Thomas. David Cassidy. And the big one – Donny Osmond.

{For those of you who have no idea who I’m referring to, think Justin Bieber heartthrob level without the cocky attitude or over-the-top entourage and we didn’t have to look at their underwear.}

My Teen Idols.

Forty-five-plus years later — seeing their pictures, hearing their voices, or listening to their (really sappy!) love songs still make my heart skip a beat. Or two.

I must say. Those idols had my heart. Kind of.

Those groovy guys, 45s, LPs, and hot pants that cannot be explained came quickly to my mind when I read the Bible story about Jonah again.

Yeah. I know. Go figure.

{And by the way…Good grief. Talk about having a bad day. I’ve had my share of them, but I’ve never ended up sharing a big fish belly with seaweed, stomach acid, and fish that were once a late-night snack.}

Anyway.

One of the verses in that Jonah book caused me to pause:

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Wow.

If an idol is something or someone I worship in place of the True God, it is clear that my life has not always been and is not always idol-free. (And I’m not talking about the Donny O. kind of idol.)

My grown-up life idols show up in the form of activities or priorities that move God down to second place. Or third. Maybe fourth.

Sometimes it has been the desire for success. Or trusting what other authors write instead of what God tells me. Worshipping comfort over commitment. Safety over trust.

And probably the biggie…
People’s opinions of me. Desiring oh-so-strongly to be liked and worshipping the nods and happy faces and Likes when they come my way. Forgetting that I am called to live for My Audience of One. Not to be approved by anyone else.

It made me wonder about all the grace that has been mine to receive, and I missed it because I was so consumed by looking for and worshipping things that took my attention away from my True God.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

So…

I’m not getting all bent out of shape about those I gazed at on the way to brush my teeth 45 years ago. My head and heart know the difference between swooning over my teen idols and being desperate for the approval idol of my peers.

But I am pausing to think more deeply about the things I worship that pop-up today on the hallway walls of my heart. Those things that keep me from experiencing God’s grace.

Those idols…God and I are working on taking them down.

First published on August 5, 2015.

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