Happy Birthday 5 yr. old, Here is a Bazooka!

Our new series at Granger Community Church is called "24" based on the television show with Jack Bauer who lives through and covers 24 hours in real time spread over the season. Jack is a special agent and is on the edge of catastrophe and chaos for the entire series of shows. Our church took that theme and incorporated it into a 6 week series based on 24 hours with Jesus as the center. It encompasses family, work, social, private, and spiritual avenues in our lives.

Tonight's focus was on family and there was a drama media that started the body of the service. The media was about a little girl's 5Th or 6Th birthday party with her family. The father decided that Jack Bauer was their hero and so the theme for the party was all about the show and what you see during the show. Her gifts that she opened one at a time were items seen in the most explosive parts of the show such as a semi-automatic gun, night vision goggles, another gun that had a super scope, and on top of her cake, a bomb which they encouraged her to take care of along with the candles on her cake.

Everyone in the audience laughed at the absurd idea of giving such violent things to a little one.

Though the message was clear within the content of the message, it struck a different kind of nerve within me. VIDEO GAMES. Those violent guns and weapons are put in our children's hands all the time with realism that is frightening from the expressions of pain and suffering and fear to the devastation of a life lost due to the violent goals of the games. So as absurd as the little girl's presents were as the message was delivered about family, the reality is that today's society puts those weapons and the ideas of violence in our children's hands every day and they call it entertainment.

My grandson is up on the technology with age appropriate learning games and fun games. He can already run circles around my video game skills but I am talking age appropriate. I feel they put the age decriptions on the packages for good reasons. I am not opposed to video games for adults.....hey if adults are "spending time together" laughing and having quality time together, then more power to it.

I am often teased about my love of Disney and my 49 soon to be 50 trips to Disney World. I am often asked why I go somewhere I have been to and know like the back of my hand. My children grew up there with the ideas that an imagination can move mountains. They grew up knowing that they could dream of being and doing anything they wanted. They grew up surrounded by family and love and a special allotted time spent with nurturing family time and enjoying that uninterrupted love. My grandson now is a seasoned Disney visitor and as a five year old, his world isn't cluttered with violent toys, guns, and the desire to hurt. It isn't driven by competitive video games with the sole purpose of endangering someone. He can sit for hours and play and imagine and his sensitivity towards others isn't clouded by a desire to win a game by "virtually" killing people.

So the next time you look into a child's eyes, think about what exists in their thoughts and dreams. As far-fetched as the media was with all of the gifts being of the violent persuasion, is that what that young mind thinks about or is that young mind thinking about wholesome dreams, visions, and actions. You be the judge.

Don't forget, children grow up and soon tire of children's games and seek more thrills only this time, it's for real.