I don't know whether it's because my students and I were discussing Moses and the Israelites the last little bit, or it's just something that has stuck with me, but the topic of idols has been in my head. The dictionary defines an idol as:
1.an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed.
2.Bible .a. an image of a deity other than God.
b. the deity itself.
3.any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion: Madame Curie had been her childhood idol.
4.a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance, as a phantom.
5.a figment of the mind; fantasy.
The encouragement of these things or people being idols comes from, essentially, the mass media. Magazines like People, OK!, Star, HELLO!, In Touch, Star, US Weekly, and Vanity Fair, all share intimate details of celebrities lives, and people actually buy these magazines and read them. 
People (myself unfortunately included) religiously watch tv shows that have no real substance and, more often than not, portray things like pre-marital sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and violence as normal and accepted. When our 'idols' do something in a magazine or on tv, we may be persuaded that what they do is ok for us too.
So think about what idols you follow and whether they are worthy of your attention or if you should leave them behind and do as Moses pleads in Deuteronomy 4:15-16 "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves...Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female".
Until next time,
-J
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