The Stranger

A friend shared this story through email last week. It's cute, but for our family it's also "amen!"

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Texas town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family.

The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey.

But the stranger...he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies. If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to our first major league ball game.

He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind. Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave).

Dad ruled our household with moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home. Not from us, our friends, or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.

My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... And NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would find him sitting in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him paint his pictures.
His name?

We just call him 'TV.'

We are coming up on our five year anniversary of being "tv free." It has made a huge difference in our lives!

We still physically have a tv but there is no network access so nothing is coming in that isn't "approved". The only things we watch these days are encouraging and faith building and the "poor quality" of some of these doesn't bother us anymore because we have nothing to compare it to. We've been deprogrammed!

We have our evenings free for family devotions because we're not waiting for a favorite show or the game of the week to come on. Our children are unaware of the latest and greatest "stuff" they are deprived of because they're not being saturated with manipulative advertising. We have time to read and explore and just talk.

Does this mean there is no draw? I wish. We were at one of our favorite burger joints the other night for dinner. There were tv's in every corner of the restaurant. I think there was a basketball game on. After we prayed for our meal, AJ confessed, "Mom, my eyes were open when we were praying. I was kind of watching the tv!"

Sinless?

We subscribe to a monthly publication called God's World News: Early Edition for the kids. It's full of current events articles tailored to their ages and understanding. It has been a great way for us to introduce them to what's happening in the world around them from a Biblical perspective.

I finally sat down to look through the January issue today. I was startled by what I read in the editor's note to parents on the first page:

Most British schoolchildren carry a copy of the Oxford Junior Dictionary to use in their public school classrooms. Now the latest edition of that work has dropped hundreds of words linked to Christianity, the monarchy, British history, and nature.

Coronation, decade, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, and monarch have been erased. The publishers also believe the children's lexicon has little use for words like beaver, cheetah, goldfish, lobster, oyster, panther and spaniel.

The Oxford University Press says that a dictionary should "evolve to reflect that fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multi-faith society." So abbey, bishop, chapel, devil, disciple, monk, nun, psalm, saint and sin have also been removed.

Words like analog, blog, celebrity, chatroom and voicemail are now included in the dictionary instead.

Oxford University Press, with the help of lexicographers and teachers, analyzed millions of words. They looked at children's books to see how frequently words were used, before making a decision on an addition or deletion.

....The story underscores the importance of what you do as you teach your children to look at everything through the lens of God's word. (emphasis mine)

Is it just me, or is this alarming?

I am shocked that the authors of a British dictionary would not find it relevant to provide a definition for the word monarch. Why is it unimportant to define a decade? And can you hear it: "Mommy, what is that little orange thing swimming in the bowl called?" "Well, I don't know dear, there's no longer definition for it."

And of course I am most disturbed, but sadly find it less surprising, that the words devil and SIN have also been deemed unnecessary. As if, by omitting the words, the truth can also be denied.

This is how subtle and crafty our culture has become in an effort to wipe out truth. I mean really, just how many parents do you think are perusing their children's dictionaries at night to see which words have been omitted? But it's happening. And if it can happen in a first world western civilization like Britain, don't think it can't happen here in our beloved "land of the free."

Which reminds me that today is inauguration day. We don't have tv, so I won't be able to watch the ceremonies. But from what I've read and the buzz I've heard, many of the festivities and events of the day are a grievous departure from what was once a government based on Biblical principles. Seems more like a reflection of the "modern, multicultural, multi-faith" (translate SIN-less?) society America has become.

God help us.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith."

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 1:16-32 (NKJV)