Christianity According to God

Church yesterday was very thought-provoking for us. We've been going through a series of sermons from the book of James. The basic discussion was figuring out if you were a mature Christian, or just going through the motions. Of course, the bottom line was that NONE of us are finished maturing, and all of us have room to grow.
Three things that our pastor focused on came from James 1:26-27, which says, "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Three Marks of Christian Maturity:
1. I have a controlled tongue....This one really convicted me because I had really lost control of my tongue Saturday with Baylor. I was frustrated with him, and I ended up screaming and cursing at him. I did all of this with Nadia on my hip, and she started crying and telling me, "No Momma!" I felt terrible, but words can't be unsaid. He asked us if anyone of us were haunted by a word or phrase said to us by a parent, friend, or other loved one. Our tongues have the power to bring life or death to people in our lives, and I need to do a better job of controlling mine.
2. I have a compassionate heart...I have a compassionate heart, but I really don't act on it as much as I should. I have friends who are just so good at that kind of thing. I know I could do a much better job of being compassionate. The widows and orphans would be a place to start, but there are so many other people in my life who need compassion.
3. I have a clean life...He talked about being IN the world without being OF the world. There are so many things that society says is normal, or okay, that God clearly doesn't agree with. Just some examples off the top of my head are pornography, cursing, stealing, cheating. He talked about how this step is not a call to isolation, it's a call to get in the mess without getting messy. Dennis talked about a flower that grows near coal mining areas that doesn't allow coal dust to stick to it. You could pour a bucket full of coal dust on top of this flower and it will just slide off. That's how we are supposed to be in the world. We should be serving the world, and being a light, but not become corrupted by secular world views.
It would be really easy to isolate ourselves in a Christian bubble, and in fact, that is what a lot of people do. We want to protect our families and our kids, so we hang out with only Christian people, go to Christian schools (or homeschool), and don't get "dirty" with the filth of the world. I guess my question is this: How do you get mature enough to be able to be around filth without it corrupting you? I mean, if I start hanging around people who curse a lot, it makes me more likely to start cursing. If I listen to music with cursing, sex, and other immorality, it makes it seem "normal" and not all that shocking when I do encounter it. I listen to mostly Christian radio, and on those rare occasions when I do listen to secular radio, I'm shocked when a bar commercial comes on because it's been months since I've heard one.
I also believe in the "garbage in-garbage out" philosophy. That is, if you put garbage into your mind and your life, than that's the fruit that you are going to see in your life.
So my dilemma is this: How do those two thoughts reconcile with each other?
Today we are going to work in my classroom. I made Baylor get up early this morning so we can start adjusting our sleep schedules, and I just realized he's snoring on the couch while I'm typing this blog! We need to go to bed early tonight for sure.