Brie Gowen's Blog Post..."Is Satan Stealing Our Families?"

Yesterday my wife read me a blog post from last July. The author: Brie Gowen, the topic: how our modern society threatens families.

I'm glad she did.

The title, Is Satan Stealing Our Families? conjures images of a horned demon hiding in the shadows just waiting for the opportunity to abduct the family unit and drag them down to hell. That's not necessarily the author's point. No, her point is much more subtle, more unseen, and frankly, more scary.

Gowen looks at how we live, Americans primarily, but the message is universal. The way we're trained to look at success, the "normal" way of doing things, the American Dream, all conspire against us to undermine the foundations a strong family provides. I'm not going to go into too much detail (Gowen explains her point much better than I am...), but in short, she wonders if all the things we are killing ourselves to obtain--the cars, the vacations, the activities--steal time away from what's the most important thing, the thing we claim we're doing all those things for, our families.

If you get a second, check out her post. You can find it: HERE. After my wife read the post, I thanked her for sharing, asked that she send me the link because I wanted to share it, then I kissed her goodbye and left for a play rehearsal. Even if we consciously try and not let the world try and steal our family, it's hard to stop. It might be easier to avoid a shadow-hiding demon.

Our Cars...As Seen Through Our Youngest's Eyes

Last night my youngest child was sitting in our room watching TV as I did some editing. A commercial for a new car came on and I watched it without really watching it.

My son, however, he paid attention.

"Dad, why do people always want to get new cars?"

It's an extremely honest question coming from a child who wants nothing but understanding.

"Well," I said thinking about new cars. "People get and want new cars for many different reasons. Sometimes they want a safe car, or their cars are old and worn out. Sometimes they want something really nice because they like how they feel driving a really nice car, or to have something nicer than what other people drive."

The comment was sort of a throw away one for me. I mean, I just said it without thinking too much about it. That's when my son said, "Our cars are good. I like our cars."

That made me stop and think. We have two vehicles, a van that seats everyone and my little compact that does not. My car is three years older than the van and neither car is driven very much--taking the bus to and from work everyday and homeschooling helps with that. They're both built by Toyota and both have years and miles still left in them.

But are they "good?" In his eyes, yes, they are.

I try to not do things that can bring me down. I've found that comparing myself to others is one of the quickest ways to ruin my day. And when I slip and do it, I get mad at myself because when it's all said and done, comparing myself to others is basically a huge waste of time. I could look at my cars and see all the faults, all the problems. My car has no hubcaps--one by one they fell off. And one door is not like the others and the desire to fix this issues hasn't been worth the cost for me to do it. 

The van's got issues too, though minor, we can always find reasons for wanting something better, something newer, something flashier. Humans--especially adults--are great at doing that. But to a child, he doesn't care what color the doors are, or that there's a small ding in a side panel that occurred when we drove it into the garage. To him, the cars have always started and taken him where he wants to go. We do have good cars and the best part, they're paid for.

My little comment turned out to be a learning experience after all. Except, it was me that did the learning.