Matthew 10:16

Have yo seen the new Disney princess movie "Tangled"? Its cute reworking of the old Rupunzel story, and has some great "one-liners". She is kidnapped as a baby by a woman who is using her, a woman who Rapunzel thinks in her mother. Only in rebellion against this wicked woman does Rapunzel find her true calling and place in life as a (drum roll....) PRINCESS! Cute right? But the movie has some additional very obvious messages for girls. How do you know that the person you call "mom" really loves you? How do you know what the rules she makes and says are for your protection (stay in your tower because it a big bad scary world out here) are really for your good and not designed to just hold you back from all the wonderful things in life? Rebellion may not be easy at times, but if you follow your heart you'll find you're really a pretty pretty princess!
What a lie from the pit of hell in pretty packaging. I know what a lot of you are thinking, "oh, come on! It's JUST a cartoon, lighten up!" Right, so you Christians out there believe that Satan is too honorable to use a lovely cartoon to plant seeds of doubt and rebellion in your three year old daughter's heart that can blossom as you she sneaks out of the your house ten years from now to have sex with her boyfriend...and become a pretty pretty princess too of course? God tells us we are in a war and our enemy wants your soul and the soul of your children to be damned to hell for all of time. There is nothing honorable about the way Satan fights us, and he's not above using ANYTHING to get to you. We're in a war, a war of ideas. Doesn't that sum up a lot of our faith? We all believe and build our lives on something, as Christians we believe we build on the only immovable foundation available, and that Satan makes war on this idea and the people who believe in it. Most Christian parents believe that stories have the potential to plant seeds that can change our lives, or else why do we take our children to Bible class and read them Bible stories? They may not understand it all right now, but God willing they will one day. These stories help to shape their life and their beliefs. Satan plants seeds too (Matt 13:24-30).
We need to learn to look at the message (the moral of the story if you will) and hold it up to the light of scripture and see if it is true. What does the Bible say about following your heart? about rebellion? The Bible doesn't teach us to act as if we immune to the devil's work, but instead to face it head on. We need to be on guard and to teach our children to be also. These are learned skills, souls saving skills, that need to be taught and exercised in our day to day life. But all of this means nothing if you don't know what is really in your children's books and movies. When you watch something with your kids, really watch it, and think about it, and talk about with them. Hardly ever does a movie have all negative messages, Tangled for instance has a strong theme of self-sacrificing love. Talk about the truth and the lies, but the main point is to talk about it. I know at some point, if you have active readers in your house it's not possible to know about everything they are influenced by. But that's a very good reason to teach your children these skills and to trust the word of God above all other things. We need a standard to compare things too, and the Bible is that perfect unchanging ruler.So where does this leave us on an issue of a cute cartoon like Tangled? I think that depends a lot on you, God, and the children involved. Some girls are too young or too easily influenced to grapple with these issues properly, and yet are very fertile soil for these lies to be sown in and bloom another day. For others this would be a perfect venue for conversation and exercising critial thinking skills. Staying alert and being engaged in this war takes an exhausting amount of vigilance. Are you willing to pick up your sword even at home?

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

The influence of media

I have been without the internet for almost a month and a half. Wow-a very different world for sure, lol. Since I knew there was such a thing as the internet that's the longest I've been without it. I'm sure it's been good for me. In all honesty I've had kind of a hard time getting back into doing things on the internet, blogging and checking e-mails and such. It has got me to thinking about how I relate to the media around me. You may have heard me mention or read here that we don't have television at home. We own a lot of movies and enjoy netflix, but we don't do TV. But I have been watching a LOT of TV recently. I've had access to it while house sitting and such. I have one of those personalities where I have enough self control to not buy all the sugary foods, but I don't have enough self control to buy them and not eat them all the time. And that's the main reason I got rid of television; it turns me into a drooling lazy zombie. I know that not all people have the self control issues I have with television but I think there are several good reasons for you to consider pulling the plug yourself.

• Advertising is purposely designed to make you discontent. Sure you can TiVo it and watch just the show, but some of the best and most expensive advertising happens during your favorite show. Sure HDTV is pretty clean, but I'd be willing to bet it doesn't help you cultivate a contented heart. Personally, I think magazines hit me even harder in this area.
  
• Advertising is designed to manipulate YOUR CHILDREN. Just stop and really think about this for a minute. Do you really want someone you don't know to use psychological manipulation on your kids to get to you, for their own greedy ends? Do you think your kids are happier if their lives are full of flashy plastic toys and sugar cereal because they have been duped into begging for these things? How would you feel if someone came to your house and tried to do this in person?
• Almost all television is in direct conflict with the command of Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
• Television is a tool for social warfare. If you are a christian your calling is to show the world that there is another way to live. This is the war we are fighting. Look at the social difference between 1930 and 1960. What other time period has seen as much social change? I believe mass media like radio and television played a huge roll in this dramatic change. If we can't be a holy people set apart for God's use in the way we relax then how can we work for him?
• If your like me and don't know when to shut the TV off it steals your time and possibly your motivation to do better things with your time and your life."Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15 & 16 This is not to say I don't believe in rest and relaxation. God is Lord of the sabbath, remember? In the old law He sets aside one whole day a week for rest. There are other options for rest besides TV, and most of them are healthier.
  
• It helps make sin and evil seem not so bad.
  
• It teaches people to sin. Don't be so naive as to think that you are above it, and it doesn't affect you.
  

I truly believe that if Christians in America don't learn to stand up and live what we claim we believe the cause of Christ will be lost here...and I believe the hearts of our children will often be lost in the process. So I want to issue a challenge. Would you be willing to go a month without television? Spend the time you would normally devote to TV seeking God's face and ask him to show you ways this media may have been holding you back and consider doing away with it for good. I was amazed at the things I found in my heart and my life that changed after I got rid of TV (one of which was I lost weight almost instantly from being more physically active...just a little perk), but it took my much longer than a month to "detox" from television. You may say it would be no big deal to give it up, and that's great! So do it then. Even if it's no big deal to give it up there may be unknown blessings in it for you. Or it might be a really big deal...and I do feel compelled to add a little side note here. I know that most of the people reading this are women, and that tv often has a very strong hold on guys in the form of sports. So let me just say to you married women that this issue is NOT worth a divorce or marital strife. Thankfully The Man and I are in agreement on this issue (but it was something I started while I was single and something I looked for in a husband). But if we weren't my answer to the situation would be to put the TV in a cabinet with a lock, and let him keep the key. Yep, my self control on this issue is THAT bad. Pretty sad I know. I've also heard of a family who kept their tv in the closet, and would only get the TV out to watch something if they really deemed it worth the trouble. I also understand that you can watch any sports event on the internet, so there are lots of ways around this issue with some creativity. If you are willing to step up and take this challenge either personally or as a family, would you drop me a note and tell me about it? Blessings!c

Christian Filmmakers

I ran across an interesting project for christian filmmakers a little while back. The project was to make a three minute long video in 36 hours from the project start date. Each film had to contain three elements from a list in the project rules so they you could prove that the film wasn't made before the start of the project. You can check out their web sight here and watch the videos through youtube. And I've posted some of the videos I liked best if you care to watch them.

Against All Odds

I listen to lot of pod cast and news shows while I'm at a computer working all day, and the first half of this show was simply too good not to share. God does certainly work in mysterious ways!

Against All Odds

Frontier house

I watched this PBS show when it first came out back in my college days, and I just got it on Netflix and watched it again. The premise of the show is that three families can't use anything invented after 1860 something, and try to see if they have what it takes to make it 5 months in Montana. Watching it a second time around I realize how much of this show stuck with me even though I wasn’t aware of it. Many of the seeds of my desire to home school and live simply came from this show. Doesn’t God work in mysterious ways?
The fascinating part of the show was not seeing how hard they had to work, a new found appreciation of my dish washer and washing machine, or the drama between the families. For me the fascinating part was watching the children change, and the family units change. The children had responsibilities that left unfulfilled would cause the family to fail. One of them said he discovered his imagination out there. Another child said he thought it was better out there because he got to do things with his dad, which never happened in their ‘real world’, and his dad taught him things and he wanted to be just like his dad. Their talents and creativity shined. It was heart breaking for me to watch the follow-up at the end of the show and the interviews with the kids back in the real world. The two teenage girls interviewed back in the ‘real world’ sat in the swimming pool next to the 7,000 sf house overlooking Malabo and said how boring life was, that they were tired of going to the mall and putting on makeup. I couldn’t blame them.
When I was kid I wanted to live in the early 1900’s or the mid 1800’s. I wanted it SO bad; I remember talking with God and asking him why he put me where he did. I don’t want that anymore, and yet I don’t want to a part of the average early 2000’s either. I don’t want to be a consumer; I want to be a more content person. I don’t want to have average children that I sent off to some one else to turn into the rebellious teenage filled with angst, entertained and open to anything that comes to their eyes and ears, like mindless lemmings. I want to know my children, really know them as people, to help them learn how work hard, and dream and see, to be brave enough to go out and be different in the best possible ways, and fulfill their callings. I want to know what it means to raise my own food, and really appreciate it. I want to learn to live on even less that I have before, to bake for the neighbors, and know the poor of my community and learn to be a blessing to them. And I want to do it all with my oh so lovely front load washing machine. I praise God for progress! I know it can bring a lot of bad with it, but I just can’t help thanking God for that lovely appliance. =) c

TV

Those of you who know me, know that I made a personal decision not to have television any more; I do watch movies but just no television. This has led to lots of little character changes for me, all of which were positive. But something hit me in the last few months that I wasn't concious of before. I'm more content. I shop less. I spend less money. Everyone knows that commercials are infuential. Why else would such money be spent for seconds durring the Super Bowl? But being an egotist, I though I was above all that. It didn't affect me. I was onto their game...too smart for them. What self diluted hog wash!

I hear a radio interview with an author of a book on poverty in the world. The book was full of large color photos and personal interviews with poor people around the world. The author said that the poor of america were some of the worst off in the world. Shocking! But his reasons were simple. The poor of America has no community support system, as they do in other village town ravaged by poverty. The poor of America are ravaged by discontent. They are surrounded by materialism and tv shows of the rich and famous, and feel that this is the standard of living. If you are poor in the third world country basically everyone you know is in the same state you are, so it is easy to be content.

How many times have I watched a sitcome and gone to bed thinking, "You know I really do need to get some big hoop earings like she was wearing, and all my shoes seem soo old. I wish I had more cute dresses, and that song they played at the end...I should find that cd..." They had hooked me, and I didn't even know it. It took over a year of television detox to even realize it.

If you are interesting in exploring this topic more, you have to check out this documentary. You can watch clips of it at that link. (And if you've never heard of the private national data base that are out there silently gathering information on transaction you make check out section 6 "Narrow Casting") After watching the whole thing I realized that what advertisers are trying so hard to do, is get inside your heard, speak your language, and convince you that whatever they are selling can fill that empty space in your life, it can be your god, the key to happiness. I've begun to realize that the less I can plug into the system, the more I can be a part of a 'peculiar people', the more I can be a light, the more useful I am to God.

"North Americans seem to have almost unlimited political, economic, and personal freedom. We live in the "free world". In fact North Americans believe they lead the way to liberty for everyone else. Yet we submit daily to brainwashing by commercial interests that must be equal to, if not more powerful than, the political posters and slogans of totalitarian governments."

~Doris Janzen Longacre