Who will you choose to be?

We have a tradition in our family for Halloween that we started about 7 years ago, to go to dinner and a movie. We skip out on the trick-or-treating partly because we don’t like something for nothing attitude it promotes and partly because I dislike the amount of sugar that typically comes home.

This year we went to see Smurfs 2. We didn’t really choose it for inspiration, we chose it for the fun factor. We liked the first Smurfs movie and it happened to be one that the whole family could watch including our youngest daughter who is 9.

I have an internal alert to great quotes though, and this movie had a winner I thought I’d share.

Papa Surf is talking to Smurfette, who has doubted her Smurfness and personal character because of her origins- being created by Gargamel. Papa Smurf says to her, “It doesn’t matter where you come from. It matters who you choose to be.”

There are so many amazing examples of people who come from terrible circumstances or are put into horrific situations and still choose to rise above it. I’ve always loved those stories of personal triumph. One of my favorites is by  Immaculee Ilibagiza called Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

We can’t run and hide

 

I just finished watching The Village for the 4th or 5th time. It’s one of my all time favorite movies. It’s a suspenseful thriller, not a horror movie, which is just the kind I love to watch.

I realized something afterward this time. The movie has always appealed to that part of me that would love to go off with a safe group of friends and family and start our own little ‘village’. Safe from the evils and terrors of this world. Safe from the thieves, rapists and murderers. A world apart from the world. How I would love to protect my children from all of the garbage that goes on- but I can’t. No matter where we live or who we live with there will be sorrows, even evils. Satan still tempts people who don’t own cars or have access to the internet. There will always be a Cain.

So rather than shelter my children, I will tell them about the evils in this world. They will have to learn to shelter their own minds as I have learned to do. They will have to learn, as I have learned, that we always have a choice.

Fighting abuse and pornography

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at two different functions.

The first was Chainbreaker Foundation. This is a much needed organization that has helped many who are trying to break the cycle of abuse. They provide guidance and emotional support as well as many temporal resources to assist those who are trying to leave an abusive situation. If you are in need of help, they are an essential resource!

I also had the opportunity to speak at the South Jordan chapter of Women for Decency. This is a fabulous organization fighting the dangerous effects of pornography. This is a serious addiction that is destroying individuals and families and I believe it was at the root of the destruction of my childhood family. Pornography addiction in my father led to more and more serious addictions, including the verbal and sometimes physical abuse that he inflicted on his wife and children, and later the voyeurism he committed against the next door neighbor girls. 

Check out the websites of these wonderful organizations:

http://www.chainbreakerfoundation.com/

http://womenfordecency.org/