Living to Tell the Story

What an insane kind of month it has been. So much has come up and needless to say the blogging has kind of gone by the wayside. But now that I finally have some breathing space I did want to take some time to do a little post and have discussion about something that I've been thinking about lately. It just seems that in the past while I have been coming across little quotes, things friends say, topics of at bible study, or bits of sermons at church that has really got me mulling over the kinds of things I read and watch. I'm the first to admit that I have sometimes let my guard down in this area. It's so easy to do. At the end of the day, when I'm tired and just want to veg it's so easy to be scrolling around the tv menu and there are all sorts of shows and movies to choose from. I tend to use it as an escape, and while I don't get into any "R" rated kinds of stuff, in all honesty, some of those choices on regular tv leave me feeling dragged down with all the violence, sexual innuendo, swearing, etc . Not to mention that when the kids were growing up it was hard to find good shows to watch as a family. We usually ended up watching stuff from way back when I was a kid.

 I don't know if any one has noticed but in the last year, there seems have been a whole lot of faith-based and inspirational shows hitting the major movie theaters. Shows such as Risen, Miracles From Heaven, God's Not Dead 2 and most recently The Song and The Shack just to name a few, have all been shows that I attended.

 This has absolutely thrilled me. While I do enjoy a good blockbuster, I also realize that within in them is pure fantasy and a fantasy based way of handling situations. Totally unrealistic and impossible to implement to real life. And that is why I also really love  to balance that with movies and shows that take real life kinds of characters that are believers and put them into situations that they may never have thought they would be in, situations that really test their faith and core values. Kind of like real life. And what I especially love about inspirational and faith based shows is watching how they use their faith and values to walk through the situation in a realistic way. That always speaks to me. I draw encouragement from finding that in both books and movies. Even though characters may struggle or be confused these kinds of shows and books always leave me with a sense that God is in control. The messages are wholesome, encouraging, and offer hope and sometimes I learn a thing or two. I can walk away feeling uplifted. And when the kids were younger I always loved using inspirational movies like these to use as starting points for discussions with them. I think that made it so much easier to talk to them about certain issues that maybe weren’t easy to bring up otherwise.

 Usually on tv there hasn't been much options in finding faith based movies or tv programming. Yes, here in my area, there are inspirational and faith based channels but a lot of it is biblical teaching programming and not movies and shows. In times past I was happy that my library carried a lot of these kinds of movies and I rented them often. But they always had to be back within a week and I had to take the time to get them and then return them. I was thrilled to find that there is now a movie resource on the internet called Pure Flix that fills this void. Right at my fingertips. And they are available 24/7. How great is that?

 If you're interested in uplifting stories, family friendly shows, or faith based movies then go ahead and check them out!