Keeping the Faith

PK and I went to see a movie last night. It was the first movie we had seen together without kids in two years. Because his work schedule isn't traditional, his days off are Tuesday and Wednesday. We do lots of lunch dates while the kids are at school, but not movies.

We went to see Soul Surfer at the dollar theatre. We call it the dollar theatre, but it is actually a dollar seventy five theatre. Semantics. We can take all three kids and let everyone have a snack for less that what we would pay for admission at the regular theatre.

I digress...

We let Rachel babysit. Yikes!! I have let her stay at home with the kids while I ran quick errands, but I was a bit nervous about an entire movie. PK pointed out that we let neighbors' kids who were Rachel's age at the time babysit our kids when they were babies. Of course, Rachel wanted to know if she would be paid. I responded like every responsible mother, "Uhhh, yes! With food on the table, roof over your head, clothes to wear, money for Youth Week at the church, money to go bowling and the 5 dollars here and 5 dollars there to do whatever it is you are asking me for at the moment." She replied with a precious eye roll.

We liked the movie. I had heard so much hype about it that I may have been expecting a small spiritual revival. It had small bits of scripture woven throughout and a taste of one of my favorite worship songs, but it wasn't overly religious. However, it was very nice to sit through a movie that wasn't drenched in sexual innuendos like the previews for animated movies directed toward children. That may be another blog post. I'll come down off of that soapbox before I get started.

There was a message of hope and perseverance. It was based on a true story of a girl who is a surfer and while surfing was attacked by a shark. She lost her arm and defied the odds to surf again and to become a professional surfer. There were clips at the end of interviews with the actual person the movie was based on. She did say in one interview that her courage came from Jesus Christ. I think her real life faith was probably stronger than the movie portrayed. The clips at the end may have been our favorite part!

PK and I were discussing it on the way home because he was singing Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman which was the song I really like. The basic them of the song is that we not only praise God when things are going great, but we praise him when we hit our lowest of lows.

I told PK something I heard in Sunday School a couple months ago had really stuck in my head. We are working through a Max Lucado book so I'm not sure if it is something he wrote or a comment someone in the class made. How we react to the situations we face, when the storm hit, really speaks to the level of faith we have in God. If I am faced with a trial and fall into a puddle or worry constantly, where is my faith? It is important to take things one minute at a time if necessary and remember that no matter the situation God is still on His throne. He is still worthy to be praised in my lowest of lows. He works good from the situations I think are unsurvivable. Many who oppose Christianity watch us in our times of trial to see what we are going to do with our faith. Do we keep the faith or do we wallow in our own self pity? Do we count our blessings or linger on the trials at hand? It isn't an easy lesson to learn, but it makes life so much more bearable when we can give every care to God and trust Him to move. When He does move we roll with it whether it is His will or ours.