Someone lent us the movie Poppers Penguins. We were also loaned the movie The Big Year. So, being Sunday, after we returned from church and had some family time, we turned on a movie.
Both movies had a very strong message about the important of family. Both movies were clean and PG. I typically expect some bad stuff that makes me cringe with my kids, and Penguins did have a brief moment like that, but for the most part I was pleased with the movies.
Is there a change in films in the U.S. right now? Are the films becoming more family centric, or do my friends simply lend me good movies?
As the Penguin movie ended the titles played with the song 'Ice Ice Baby'. That song was popular when I was 13 or so. Ironically the star of the film, Jim Carrey, once parodied that song on a t.v. show.
I had these thoughts:
- Jim Carrey doesn't look that old. But he was twice my age when I was a kid. Wow, I'm old.
- This song is over 20 years old... my kids have never heard it before... I told them it was sung by Vanilla Ice. My son said 'um.. what's a Vanilla ice.'.
By No means is Vanilla Ice representative of any kind of quality music of my era. And yet, in my kids minds now, they think 'the music dad listened to when he was our age is bad rap by someone called Vanilla Ice.'
I felt old. My kids were watching a man in a comedy that I watched in comedies when I was their age.
Today in church a testimony was given from the high school band trip. The message I heard was that the kids had left what is 'home' to them... to minister in Australia. High school boys who couldn't be bothered to do much more than grunt, suddenly became very talkative when speaking about what their parents do in PNG.
I'm 38 years old. My nephew just graduated high school. My daughter is nearly 13.
Behind me there are a lot of good memories, living in PNG is our current stage in life. It's lasted 5 years thus far, and with your prayers it'll last a while longer too.
My kids are experiencing life for the first time, hearing songs for the first time, seeing thoughts that strike me as having been expressed before, many times.
And I find that entirely encouraging.
There are some hardships right now. Our clinic is closing, the main bridge fell apart today-breaking our supply line, medication is costly, my wife's grandmother has passed on, we have financial need because of the airfare we bought to send her there..... and yet, God has blessed us with 2 kids who are looking at life and have so much potential... they are experiencing it all with wide open eyes. And we get to shape that a little bit more before their time with us is done.
So I can't really get too discouraged. I looked outside today at this beautiful place... and I've heard the testimonies this morning of people reading the Scripture for the first time in their language.
And I'm struck with one theme for the day. Focus on what is important.
(I'll flesh some of this out more throughout the week, to help you pray specifically, but today is Sunday, God's day, and I'm focussing on what is important.)
