(Updated on Wednesday, 6/1...neat video clip added at the end!)
Today was very different than any day of the last 3 weeks. Vacation ended for my dh, so he went back to work. My oldest, Bryan, also went to work...he started his student internship at Kline Creek Farm. He's been a volunteer there for many years, but starting today, he's an employee. BIG difference! So he left for work this morning at 7am, and came home about 6pm. That left just me and Nathan. It was another hot, humid day in Illinois, and rain was forecast, too. So we decided to do something fun...we went out for lunch and then to our "second-run" theater (shows films a little while after their big openings, so tickets only cost $3 each) and saw the movie, "Soul Surfer," about Bethany Hamilton.
I'm sure some of you are cringing right now...most of the Christian critiques of this film center on the parade of bathing suits. And they are right...it is a surfing story set in Hawaii, and kids (and adults) are in bathing suits. (Competition surfing puts long, colored swimshirts on the girls...that's how they identify them out in the surf, by their colored shirt.)
We knew all that going in to see the film. We just returned from a week-long Florida beach vacation. There was nothing in this film that wasn't on the beach where we hosted our friends for the week! That said, I'm not here to offer ANY arguments for or against this film. There was something else that drove me and Nathan to go see it.
If you are the parent of a young person who has experienced a major traumatic incident in their life, one that has impacted them greatly...you would understand.
If you are the parent of a young person who has been, at the kind and loving hand of God, given a major challenge in their life, one that you couldn't change, and you've had to stand by their side and watch them struggle and fall and hurt and get back up and grow and mature through that challenge...you would understand.
If you are the parent of a young person who deals with a major difficulty in their life, and you are both at the point where they need to learn to manage on their own and you have to let them go, as frightening as that is to you...you would understand.
We are there. Nathan is there. I am there. If all you would see and be impacted by are the bathing suits, then this isn't a movie you need to watch...you are not there, and it wouldn't impact you in a good way. I came away with a new perspective on my role at this point in time. And I think Nathan came away encouraged and strengthened. We both know and see God's tender hand in all of life, and the movie portrayed that, too. It isn't perfect (it's Hollywood...the spiritually dead cannot perfectly portray spiritual truth), but then again, neither am I perfect. We went for a reason, and we got from it exactly what we'd hoped to get.
(NOTE: 6/1)...I'm adding this neat video clip that I found today of Bethany Hamilton sharing her story and testimony with Australian Nick Vujicic...and then giving him an incredible gift! (You'll need to quickly scroll to the bottom of this blog page and pause the music player, then scroll right back up here and start the video.)
It was so nice to have a whole day, just to do things together and talk. I am SO blessed! Fun with my son! I know that before I even know it, another year will race by and he'll be off to college. I want to treasure these opportunities while they are here. What a joy to watch our sons grow into fine young men!
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