Important Lessons From Vinyl Records...

It's no secret that I love music... I have a collection of vinyl records (kids, records are like giant, black CDs... ask your parents :) that has steadily grown since my college days to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500...

I know, right?

Believe me, in the beginning I heard it from my wife... a lot.  But after 13 years I think she's resigned to the
fact that this is who I am and music is a big part of me.  And even though my hobby takes over half our living room she loves me enough to be OK with that...

Whenever someone comes over to our house they are immediately bombarded with what I like to call my little "reintroduction to retro".

Here, it's easier for me to show you in pictures...

And yes... those are more LP's on the back wall.  By the way, thank you Ikea for creating shelves perfect for holding records! No more cinder blocks and plywood :)

Fun Friday + Rhett and Link = Awesome

Most of you have heard of VeggieTales... those lovable cucumber and tomato purveyors of God's Word.  But I'd be willing to bet that you've never heard of What's In The Bible?...  If you haven't... check it out!

It was watching What's In The Bible that I discovered The Bently

It's up to you...

Hey Moms and Dads, take a moment to read this:

There’s a lot of talk about kids and television. Ten years ago the average kid swallowed a daily TV dosage of three hours and 47 minutes. You may also know the total reached four hours and 29 minutes of daily viewing by 2009. 

Eye-popping numbers? Yes. But if that’s all you know, then you know less than half the story!
“Media” is a lot more than just television. Add two and a half hours of music/audio; then another hour and a half on the computer; now tally the one hour and 13 minutes of video gaming; factor in 38 minutes of print and (on average) 25 minutes of movie watching. It all begins to add up.

All told the grand total for exposure is ten hours and 45 minutes of media – that’s each and every day of your child’s life. (Source: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation “M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds”) 

Okay, nice. Now you know. So what? Mix in eight to ten hours of sleep and we’re talking around four hours left over for stuff like learning the values children need in order to deal with ten plus hours of God knows what. 

Well, God does know. But the question is, do you? 

So let’s talk about monitoring; what can we do to keep an eye on media in our children’s lives? 

  (taken directly from 10 Ways to Monitor Media in Your Child's Life on www.allprodad.com)

As you will discover, this is a little soapbox of mine :)

If our main job as Christian parents is to raise our children to love God with all their hearts, souls, and minds and to love others as themselves, then most of what we let our kids hear, see, and  mentally ingest is absolutely contrary to this.

This Top 10 List from www.allprodad.com is full of wisdom, truth and insight.

Read it, compare it to your own situation, make adjustments as necessary.

Remember, YOU are the parent.  Live into that!

Oh, MANNAcotti...

Who is this guy?  Nope, it's not John Travolta... it's Keith Green!  :)

Keith Green is one of my heroes.

I have never heard another singer with a more convicting voice of sincerity than this guy... and I listen to a LOT of music.

Every time I listen, I mean really sit and listen, I end up with tears in my eyes.  Keith Green was a man who let God work through him in a powerful, powerful way.

Growing up, Keith was played in my house often.  In fact, it was hearing Keith Green tickle the ivories like he did that made me want to do the same.  He could rock, he could funk, he could ballad.  In short, he was

Do you see what I see?

Ok.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older... or because I'm slowly becoming my parents, but I've recently been noticing all the truly awful things in the mediasphere (TV, music, internet, movies, books, etc...) that are aimed directly at our kids' hearts, souls, and minds.

If Jesus said that the greatest commandment of all time is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:34-39)... I'm pretty sure not much of what is floating invisibly through the airwaves and directly into our homes, or is sitting on our kids' iPods is going to help us as parents instill this truth in our children very effectively.

I'm not just saying this as a children's pastor... I'm saying this as a father who is concerned about what my