Shows My Kids Watch (Cartoons at least!)

I always make it a point to at least try to watch what my kids are watching on television. You never know what kind of messages and values the world is trying to instill in your children that is contrary to what God's truth is. Mostly our family does not watch much network television, but my kids, thus I by default, watch a few of the shows on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and the Disney Channel. We do not watch them all the time, we just pick these if we have nothing else to do. (Most of the time they would rather play outside or play video games.) After watching some of the "newer" cartoons, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the new animated shows are stupid and are very annoying. It makes me miss the classic cartoons I used to watch as a child.

A brief list of some of the shows my kids watch from time to time (I try to steer them away from these shows as much as possible) are: Naruto (This is an excessively violent and annoying Japanese cartoon with a lot of yelling that hurts my ears. It also had some vulgar language and the main character harnesses the power of a demon, that he has inside of him, to try and do good things.), The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (This show features an extremely rude and disrespectful girl whose parents are afraid of her, an extremely gross and stupid boy with very stupid parents, and the Grim Reaper. It teaches kids that parents are dumb and easily manipulated and that stupidity and outright cruelty are acceptable behaviors.), Ed, Edd and Eddy (Yet another show with greedy, stupid and annoying sounds that get on my nerves. It teaches kids that its OK to cheat or injure others in order to achieve what ever goal you want, especially making money.), My Gym Partner is a Monkey (A show about a boy whose is sent to an animal school because of a mix up in his last name. It features a monkey who is obsessed with his butt and anything else gross. It also has annoying sounds that just grates your nerves.), Code Name: Kids Next Door (This show portrays parents as dumb people who are dictators and should be controlled by children who are really the smartest and dominate people on the planet. Grown ups in general are the enemy and should not be respected.) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (This show is another Japanese import that features a kid possessed by an Egyptian Prince? and it teaches kids that demons and false gods are real and their powers can be harnessed through sets of "playing cards".)

There is at least one show that we watch regularly that I am starting to grown concerned about; Pokémon. This show started out as something even I liked, but the more I watch it the more I am growing concerned that the show is teaching nature worship. The more recent episodes and books based on the series also teach that the universe was possibly created by the creatures called Pokemon and that they are responsible for the balance of the nature, time, and humanity as well. I am not sure this is the message I want my kids to be indoctrinated with.

Some current "family" shows I will not allow my kids to watch at all are: The Simpsons (The epitome of a bad TV show. A stupid and abusive father, rude and disrespectful children, not to mention the crude and gross behaviors of everyone else on the show.), Futurama (from the creators of the Simpsons, this show is outright vulgar, sexual and crude. Lucky for us it comes on very late at night.), and South Park (vulgar language, crude behavior, racist attitudes, and violent.)

Not all of the newer shows are bad though (At least as far as I can tell). Some shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Kim Possible, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Code Lyoko and Back at the Barnyard may have annoying things in them, but so far I have not found anything I particularly object to. I am still forming an opinion about the newest show my kids are watching called, Chowder (The show is about a little "kid" who eats almost anything and wants to be a great chef. Funny thing about this show is that all the main characters are named after foods. It is a dumb show but nothing objectionable yet.)

What happened to the good shows that taught some basic good moral values like: Rugrats, Doug, and PB & J Otter? Those were some good shows! Some shows I am glad to see off the air, such as Beavis and Butt-head and Ren and Stimpy.

At least I keep track of what my kids are watching. Some parents don't even know anything about the shows that their kids watch. Let me know what you think?

Who is a God like You?

I have been a Christian for the majority of my natural life. In all the years I have been a Christian I have to honestly say that I have read the Bible from cover to cover only twice (maybe three) time ever. I am just about to finish it for the third (maybe fourth) time. The hardest part of reading the Bible, to me, is reading through the major and minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament. The prophetic language is sometimes hard to understand and it seems very repetitive.

In my most recent attempt at reading through these books, I have tried to look at them with open eyes and with an open mind. What I discovered made me very sad, then angry and then extremely happy. The sad part was reading about the punishment that God was going to inflict on his people if they did not repent from their sinful ways and return to a life of righteousness and relationship with God. The angry part was that despite God's many warnings of what this punishment was, the Israelites and Judeans kept on sinning. I mean God warned them over and over again, that if they would just repent, He would save them. He wanted to show them mercy, but they ignored Him right on up to the point where they were carried away into captivity by their enemies. The happy part was knowing that God loved them enough to delay their punishment until everyone had heard the warnings and had a chance to repent. He loved them enough, that even when the punishment was carried out, He took care of the few who were faithful and blessed them anyway. Wow!

What a God! I think the prophet Micah sums it up best in his book. Micah 7:18-20 says, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our iniquities into the depth of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago."

God does not want to punish us! He does not want to send any of His children to captivity in Hell! God wanted to show His love for us so much, that He died for us in the form of His Son, Jesus, the Christ. He wants to show us His mercy and grace. He wants us to listen to the warnings. He wants those who have received Him to share the warnings and the good news of Grace to others. I pray that those who deny Jesus and continue to ignore the warnings wake up and accept His offers of mercy before it's to late.

What I got for Christmas

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas Day with their family! The presents are unwrapped and now a home must be found for them other than our living room floor. The visits with both sides of the family are over and my family has the rest of the week to ourselves, before school/work starts again next week. As for me I plan to just lay around in P.J.'s the whole week, NOT, we have some work to be done around the house.

The nice lady who cleans our house for us has disappeared off the face of the earth. We have not seen hide nor hair of her since mid-November. We would suspect something valuable is missing, but she is an Elder's wife at one of local church congregations. Still nothing seems to be missing in the house. She just stopped showing up. We called to check on her and there is no answer at their house. We called the church, and they said no one in her family was sick and they were not on vacation. Hmmm. I guess this means we have to clean our own house again for a while. (What a shame, to have to clean your OWN house...ha, ha!)

I did manage to get a nice bit of "stuff" for Christmas from family and friends. Here is my list...

I got three books: one from Ted Dekker, one from Randy Alcorn and a book by former President Jimmy Carter.
I got a $10.00 gift card to Books-A-Million.
I got a $5.00 Sonic card.
I got two pairs of Christmas type boxers and two pairs of long sleep pajama pants. I got a pair of Black & Decker power scissors, that are supposed to cut through that hard plastic outer coating that they came in. (Took several minutes to use regular scissors just to get out the new pair.)
I got a book of questions about "How much do you know your wife?" and another book like it called, "How much do you know about World War II?"
I got a baseball shaped "stress ball" that I traded with my daughter for a football shaped one. (She liked the baseball one better.)
I got a four pack of Vanilla flavored Starbucks Frappachino drinks. (Already gone.)
I got three new nice shirts to wear and $25.00 cash.

Now I need to go back to sleep...my kids woke us up at 5:00 a.m. --- maybe my next gift can be an interrupted 1 hour nap. --- Yea, that sounds good.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus...I can't wait for You to come and take us home with You.

That's My King!!

This video was put together to honor the late S.M. Lockridge, who once presented an incredible message, describing our God and who He is. Though God can't be described with just words, this is as close as you can get this side of Heaven.



And now a message from Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee...



Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas

An Interesting Christmas Observation & Fun Christmas Lights

The other day my family and I were remembering watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. While remembering the good things about the show: Rudolph becoming a hero, the Bumble turning good, and Hermie becoming a Dentist, we also came to the conclusion that Santa Claus may be just a touch prejudice. What? Santa is prejudice?

If you recall, when Santa first saw Rudolph and his "red-nose", Santa felt sorry for Donner and his wife, and told them that Rudolph would never be able to pull his sleigh. Wow, Santa discriminating against Rudolph because of his red-nose. It would be the equivilant of a sports coach not letting a handicap kid play on the team just because he/she looks different from the rest of the team. I thought Santa loved every one. It finally took an "emergency" for Santa to finally realize that Rudolph's nose was not a handicap but instead a blessing. At least Santa learned his lesson.

Now that I'm through bashing Santa...here is a video clip of some amazing Christmas Lights put to music. The person responsible no longer displays his lights this way, due to heavy traffic caused in his neighborhood. It is still fun to watch though!

Baseball & Steroids

In my opinion Baseball will always be the greatest game in the United States. It's just a shame that it took the The Mitchell Report to officially prove what the public has known for years. Many players have and currently use performance enhancing substances, ranging from steroids, to human or animal growth hormones, to make themselves "better" players and expand the length of their careers. Players who knowingly took these products against the rules of Major League Baseball, "Cheated", and we all know it.

You can make an argument that if the pitchers were using substances to make themselves better pitchers, then it's only fair that the batters used the substances to make themselves better hitters. Then it would only be fair that the fielders use the substances to be able to better field the ball that the "juiced up" batters were hitting off the "juiced up" pitchers. So what's the problem? Many of the players did not use these substances. What about them? They attempted to rely on their talent alone to try and best those who were cheating.

Records were broken, championships were won, wins and loses and other statistics were unfairly altered due the widespread use of these drugs and the players who cheated" MLB can attempt to punish the players and anyone else involved. They can erase the records of players who broke the rules, but can they go back and change the wins and losses for teams? Can they erase/add individual strikeouts, hits, runs, RBI's, etc... to those players who did not cheat?

We all know the punishment for players who take money to intentionally alter the results of a game, (see: The Black Sox Scandal), and players/managers who actively bet on baseball games, who are currently active in the sport, (see: Pete Rose). The punishment is a permanent restriction from ever playing the game again and from being included on a Hall of Fame ballot, thus banning them from The Baseball Hall of Fame. What should be the punishment for the users of performance enhancing drugs? They too altered the results of the game.

If any of the players named in the Mitchell Report are proven, not just implicated, to have intentionally used steroids, hormones, or anything else to unfairly alter their performance, then they should be punished.

Former Players should be immediately banned from participating in the sport of baseball for life and have their names removed from the Hall of Fame ballot for life, but not permanently. They should no longer be allowed to be involved in the sport, but since the use of these drugs was so wide spread, I think they should only be banned from the Hall of Fame until the day they die. This way the sportswriters of the future, can objectively weigh the player's achievements and possibly elect them to the Hall of Fame. If the player is elected to the Hall of Fame, they will not be alive to enjoy it. It is the only way retired players can be punished.

For those players currently active in the sport, then punish them according to the maximum punishment allowed by the current system that is set in place, Even if their use of the drugs are "after the fact." Then place a lifetime restriction to their inclusion on the Hall of Fame Ballot. Once again not a permanent ban, just until the player dies, so they cannot enjoy any benefits future Hall of Fame voters may choose to give them.

This is how I would handle the punishment for the players who have tarnished the reputation of the game forever!