White Flag/The Hurt & The Healer

So the past few mornings have had somewhat of a tie through their genre. I don't know all the words to either song, but I still enjoy singing along with them.
This isn't the version I've heard on the radio, but the first song was "White Flag" and then there is "The Hurt & the Healer".
At first, when I was humming these songs in the morning, I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about with them. These songs didn't really lend themselves to blog posts for me. When I put them together though, I found something that I wanted to write about.
I can remember two and a half years ago sitting in an institute class discussing the power of music. It's a concept that I have no trouble acknowledging (and I would hope that if you've been here for my blogging over the last little while you can see that I put a great deal of emphasis on the power that music has in my life). The teacher asked us to try and identify what exactly we were listening to in our lives and why. At the end of the lesson, nothing had really changed for me, but it did start me in a direction that has grown with time.
I made a conscious effort starting then to clean up my tastes in music. Like I said, nothing changed overnight, but as I worked at listening to better things, I noticed that the radio stations I frequented were different. I've always loved instrumental and classical music, and so listening to KBAQ was an easy substitute for me.
One of my friends mentioned to me how boring it is to drive with me one day. I realized then that, although I love the freedom listening to classical radio gives me to think, no everyone is such a fan. I started looking for other things on the radio I could be happy listening to. I didn't have to go far from 89.5 to find KLOVE, Family Life Radio and Air One. While I don't necessarily agree with the idea of rocking out in worship, those stations had music that I didn't have to worry about offensive lyrics on and that had a beat that didn't bore passengers. With time, those four became my staple stations.
I realized as these songs were stuck in my head this week that they really have made a difference and an impact in my life. At first, I went through and made a list of the songs that played on popular music stations while I was driving to and from my parents' place (~30 minute drive). I was going to point out how vulgar and wrong those songs would be to show how important it is not to listen to music like that. My lists were:

• Turn Me On- David Guetta
• Boyfriend- Justin Bieber
• DJ Got Us Fallin in Love- Usher
• What Makes You Beautiful- One Direction

and

• Somebody that I Used to Know- Gotye
• Super Bass- Nicki Minaj
• Rumor Has It- Adele
• Wild Ones- Flo Rida
• Dynamite- Taio Cruz

Not only was I able to sing along to almost every song, but previous and in-the-works posts were inspired from songs in those lists. That kind of shot my original idea down.
I realized then, that for me it isn't about shutting popular music out and going all to Christian Rock and Classical. There are still a lot of good songs out there. This is just my way of saying that being careful about what you do and don't listen to does make a big difference. To take a particularly crass example, some lyrics:

Yes I did, yes I did, somebody please tell him who the F I is

I am Nicki Minaj, I mack them dudes up, back coupes up, and chuck the deuce up

If I get to choose what is going to be stuck in my head all morning (and I usually don't. The only choice I get is what I put into my head all day the day before), I'll take lyrics like this:

I'm alive

And even though a part of me has died,

You take this heart and bring it back to life.

I fall into your arms open wide.

When the hurt and the Healer collide.

So, what are you putting in, and can you tell me it doesn't influence what you get out?