It's only January 4th (oops, I guess the 5th now), and I'm already feeling defeated on my New Year's goal. Not exactly my fault . . . well . . . maybe. Early Tuesday morning, the day I was going to get started getting my house in order, my school planned, and Christmas stuff put away, two of the boys woke up sick. Really sick! Although they were over the worst about a quarter of the way through the day, I wasn't. I slept all day. Every time I woke up and thought I'd get up and try to get something done, I just couldn't, and I'd fall back to sleep. Late Tuesday night, I started getting sick, so I know now that my body was fighting it hard even before I saw the signs of having something. Wednesday was spent just recovering--finally eating, resting a little more, and getting up a little to build up my energy again.
So what did we do on these two sick days? Why, watch TV, of course! I feel like such a slug and a failure! Of course, I didn't watch much TV Tuesday. Every time I'd put something on I'd fall asleep--probably a good thing, and a sure sign that something wasn't right with me. So tomorrow I try again . . . to keep it off . . . and to resume life.
One of the hardest things for me is how to tell the boys that we have to cut off watching one of their favorite shows. I previewed the next season tonight (OK, only one disk of the next season), and it's just going to postmodern on us. Good guys that act like bad guys, bad guys you feel sorry for, ends justifying hte means, way too much skin and romance--I'm just not ready for them to see all of this. But I feel trapped. As parents, how do we change gears on our kids when we've let them do something, and all the sudden can't anymore? I know how stupid it would be to continue doing something that goes against my conscience, but how do I correct it and keep their hearts on my team?
I need to do some serious praying on this. And I think the TV just needs to stay off altogether for a while. |
• Jan. 4, 2007 - He is worthy
I wrote on the afore mentioned scripture earlier this morning, so it is fresh on my mind.
Like you, I have had to make some decisions regarding my family's connection with the world. None of my family are believers, so their gifts tend to fall into the secular realm. In fact, my former husband brought our son a Spider Man cell phone (a play one, he's only 1). At first I thought it would distract him from slobbering over my real one. Yet, after doing some "house cleaning", I was convicted to get rid of anything that branded worldly Super Heros. The Holy Spirit even began to deal with me about our "Christian" video tapes--Veggie Tales and God Rocks. There is an insidious nature about the cartoons of today that is causing our children to act immature and downright silly! I have noticed that the conversations of my budding daughters tend to be trivial and coarse. When they visit their father, they are indulged in T.V. and the effects are noticeable.
I encourage you to "trash" anything that the H.S. is convicting you about--purge the sin from the camp. Many times the enemy will use our devotion to our children against us. In any compromise, there is ALWAYS destruction. Your children will thank you years from now when they are living a sublime life and others are throwing themselves off a cliff because they are imitating the shows their parents didn't pull the plug on!