Sunday, April 30, 2006

Shame on me...

Well, after contemplating my crazy post from the other day, I realize that I sounded like a rebellious teenager, but you know, I was never that rebellious as a teenager or even in college. I sat in my dorm room for three years and studied before I got married, then I sat in our apartment and studied for another year and a half :) It's time for a little rebellion.

I am not trying to thumb my nose at God's grace. But we all do it sometimes, don't we? When we tell "little white lies"--"Your hair looks....great!". When we promise to play with our kids and get too busy and forget. When we pass the homeless person on the side of the road. We all forget how much God has done for us every day, in the busyness of life.

I'm still confused though, how and where to draw the line when it comes to media/entertainment. How many curse words are too many? 1 or 10? How much nudity is too much? A belly button or a silhouette of a breast? How much violence is ok? Even if you try to watch/listen to only "Christian approved" entertainment, how can you be sure it's Biblically sound? It's like I'm darned if I do and darned if I don't. (Notice I used the word darned--Is iti ok to use substitutes for curse words when you know what the real meaning is?) You probably see what I mean. I guess I'll sum it up by saying I'm just not going to worry about it so much. I'll do what's best for my family as much as I can, but if we hear a curse word in a movie, and if my girls say it, I'll just tell them that's not nice--I'll guide them the right way and hope they keep heading in the right direction.

Now I'm heading to church because I don't want to be a heathen ALL day. :)

3 comments:

Joan said...

Love your new template...cool.

I think it's just important to have lines for your family based on whatever you and your husband this is appropriate.

Some things are not necessarily "bad" for kids. We have chosen to save some content as a rite of passage for the kids depending on what we think is developmentally appropriate for them spiritually or emotionally.

For our kids, we felt with some Disney movies the "beast" or "witch" figures overshadowed the tension/fun of the movie...so we held off so that they could enjoy them.

When they were older more as they understood the quality of fiction.

Kids base reality on fiction at a young age...or their understanding of it. That's why I've chosen to deal with Santa and other figures in a more realistic approach. Some choose differently.

Our choice to wait on Chronicles of Naria was based, not on an opposition to the content, or a problem with it, but because it was such good quality, we wanted to wait until we could use it to explain salvation in an allegorical way that is very effective. We felt if we exposed the kids to it too soon, it may scare them to spiritual things unduly, and it would no longer be fresh when it was time.

I recently had a date with my oldest and watched it with him as he explained to me all the parallels he saw in the character wtih Bible stories. Was very moving for me to see him make the connections. He was saved about half the way through reading the series, and I feel the principles and disussions we had helped lead him to understanding of his decision.

I hope that it will play a role in the understanding of the other two as well.

We save even things of quality for certain ages so that they have something to look foward to without us having to move the our lines to keep entertaining them.

Perhaps that makes some sense. I don't want them to have to do something wild and crazy just for lack of us using us all good entertainment too early. A sort of rationing I suppose, milking the best out of good quality stuff so that it's not "old news" by the time they could really appreciate it.

Long comment, but hope that helps.

The entertainment frustration I've had in Christianity on my recent blogging had nothing to do with films. More to do with taking people to the next levels in worship. We pack the house on Sunday morning, yet on Sunday night when there is meat and practical teaching, the crowd drops by 75%. Unfortunate that the hook is not taking people where they need to be to survive life beyond surface exposure to Christianity. They want "just a little".

Mysti said...

What a great edifying comment! I guess I never saw it that way before--the "rationing" of entertainment for the kids. I get so confused by everything I read and hear from Christian sources sometimes. It's like most of them say keep them away from anything secular, but that's so hard to do.

I have to say we're not in the church crowd on Sunday night either, but it's not been good time-wise with the kids either. We have, however, been in the 11:00 service for a while now, mainly because the early one was so crowded that we were more distracted. It's been a little easier to keep Meg quiet in the 11:00 service. You know, sitting through church with youngins is so challenging :)

Joan said...

It IS challenging, I know. I took a break in the evenings for a while at that stage. You are plugged in to discipleship elsewhere...not the type person I had in mind, though I hope you get to enjoy the body life in that service at some point. It's so different.

We use pluggedinonline from focus on the family (I tried to paste over the link here and couldn't). Google it. It gives a good run down on movie content and refreshes me as to where my standards need to be in terms of movie entertainment. We've been able to find some great quality entertainment that way, and I end up being less disappointed, waste less cash. My husband enjoys that part of our family life and will check true kid friendliness before agreeing to take the kids to a movie.

Hope you find what works for you.