Category Archives: Parents & media usage

‘Finding Dory’: 4 incredible lessons for children AND parents

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‘Finding Dory’: 4 incredible lessons for children AND parents

Kids once learned lessons about life through books. That’s still the case for many children, but for the rest of them, movies have helped fill the gap.

That can be scary thought when you consider what Hollywood is putting in theaters, but for families who watched Finding Dory – which set an opening-weekend box office record for an animated movie – it’s a good thing.

The Disney/Pixar flick is full of positive life lessons for both children and adults, as I discovered when I took my 8-year-old son to it on opening night. As we drove home, he and I discussed what we could take away from a film that, yes, was both entertaining and hilarious but that also had a great message.

Here are four lessons for families: Continue reading →

‘Dad, I’m bored.’ (Here’s 3 things to tell your kids.)

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‘Dad, I’m bored.’ (Here’s 3 things to tell your kids.) Adam and Even didn’t have children prior to sin entering the world, but I sometimes wonder what it would have been like.

Would Cain and Abel have played well together, all day long, without fussing? Would they have eaten their food – even the Brussels sprouts and spinach — without complaining?

Then there’s this one: Would they ever have told their mom and dad: “We’re bored”? And would it have bugged Adam and Even as much as it bothers me when my kids say that?

I look at my kids’ toys – the ones in the corner, the other ones by the bed, and then the toys in the basement – and I think to myself, “How can you be bored?!”

But then I realize that boredom isn’t limited to my kids or even your kids. Adults, too, get bored, even if we don’t realize it. The average American watches more than five hours of TV a day [1] and checks their social media accounts 17 times a day [2]. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans read their Bible only four times a year [3]. In other words, we’re bored with God. And we want to be entertained.

It’s been suggested that boredom is a modern invention, and I tend to agree. Think about it: Our ancestors grew and preserved their own food, sewed and washed their own clothes, and built and repaired their own houses. They had very little time to be bored, and they didn’t have modern technology to “fill” the void.

I don’t know how often boredom is a sin, but I’m quite certain it’s not God’s original intent. After all, do you really think we’ll be bored in heaven?

So on those rare occasions that my kids say they’re bored, I try to make a few points: Continue reading →

3 things to teach your daughter about true beauty

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3 things to teach your daughter about true beauty My daughter Maggie is only 3 but she already knows what she wants to be when she grows up.

A princess.

But not just any princess. She wants to be a beautiful princess. And preferably, one who wears pink dresses. And does ballet.

Three years ago, I despised the princess craze. Why would I—I thought at the time—want my daughter to chase after an unattainable physical beauty that only resides in fantasies and Hollywood-style Disney movies?

But here I am, three years later, with a daughter who wants nothing more than to be pretty and to wear nail polish, and who wakes up every morning wanting to don the latest princess fashion.

How did I get here? Believe me, I didn’t promote it.

As much as I’d love to blame Disney, I really can’t. If I did that, then I might as well blame the football manufacturer who designed the kiddie pigskin her twin brother recently used to break a light bulb. Just as he is naturally attracted to physical activity, she has a natural yearning to be physically beautiful. And that latter concept terrifies me.

It scares me to think about my daughter growing up in a culture where a simple trip to the grocery store can turn into a fleshly battle, with society screaming at every turn: “You’re not beautiful enough!” There, on the billboard, is the perfect-looking Hollywood star, telling anyone who happens to look: “This is what you should look like.” And there, on the cover of the checkout-line magazine, is that same woman, only this time she’s lost half of her clothes and is promoting a “secret” diet and exercise routine that helped her lose all of that baby weight and get back down to 98 pounds!

Unless you have $50 million, a live-in nannie, a personal trainer, time to burn and an air brush, who can compete with that? Our culture’s objectification of women is to be loathed, but thankfully, Scripture gives us a better option. So what will I tell my daughter? This:
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Skip ‘Fifty Shades’ and watch ‘Old Fashioned’

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This story/review first appeared in two other publications.

Skip ‘Fifty Shades’ and watch ‘Old Fashioned’

Skip ‘Fifty Shades’ and watch ‘Old Fashioned’

What happens when a God-honoring romantic movie is released on the same weekend as “Fifty Shades of Grey,” one of the most sexually exploitive (and popular) stories of our time?

We’re about to find out.

The faith-based movie is “Old Fashioned,” a Valentine’s Day weekend film that turns everything America believes about dating on its head and proves that true romance is found in upholding biblical values, not following trashy novels.

It tells the story of a Christian single man who has developed “old-fashioned” views of dating, years after a promiscuous college life. His theories about romance are put to the test when he meets a free-spirited young woman who is new in town and who is taken aback by his “outdated” beliefs. For starters, he refuses to be alone with her at her apartment. There obviously is mutual interest, but can they make a traditional courtship work in modern-day America?

I watched it and simply loved it. The acting is top-notch and the storyline fun and compelling. It’s probably the only romance movie that I not only enjoyed but also cheered.
 Continue reading →

You’ve got (snail) mail: 3 reasons to write letters (not texts) with your kids

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You’ve got (snail) mail: 3 reasons to write letters with your kidsThe average teenager sends about 2,000 messages a month – and receives another 2,000. And that’s not even counting Tweets, Facebook posts and instant messages.

I’m not a teen, but I do text, Tweet and all that other social media stuff. I sometimes brag to my wife that I was texting before texting was cool, way back in the previous millennia. My friends would say, “Why text when you can simply call?” And I’d reply, “Just wait until 2014 and you’ll understand.”

I don’t have a teen but I do have a 6-year-old who enjoys texting whenever he can get his parents’ phones. I also have a sweet little girl who can’t text yet but is really good – for a 2-year-old, mind you – at just about any alphabet game on the iPhone. I’m sure she’ll be texting soon.

We live in a world of electronic infatuation and instant communication, and it sounds futile – backwards, really – to try any form of communication that doesn’t involve a keyboard or keypad.

Nevertheless, my oldest son and I often write letters.

What’s a “letter,” you say? Well, a long, long, long time ago, people wrote these things called “paragraphs,” using what was called a “pen,” and they’d “mail” their letter in an “envelope.” (Just look it up on Wikipedia.) It took about two days for a friend to receive it.

It eventually was dubbed “snail mail,” and it was wonderful in so many ways that a text just isn’t.

Why would I teach my son to write letters? Here’s three reasons:

Continue reading →