The End of an Era

I sit here today as one proud mama.

Not, that I haven't always been proud of all of my children and their accomplishments, but this particular instance really got me beaming.

For the past couple of years, R has been pretty much infatuated with a certain "teen pop sensation". One who has her own television show with her famous father. I am sure you get my drift.

And up until recently, Jay and I were not bothered by it too much. I mean, for all intents and purposes, the show seemed fairly harmless (at first) and the little actress herself seemed to be, for the most part, a generally "good" kid.

However, as most of us are aware, that "good" kid's behavior lately has become somewhat less desirable. She has begun to display a bad attitude, more promiscuity, etc. And I am aware that her personal life doesn't necessarily mean that she will bring those traits into her show. But, as we were watching the show together the other day, I was shocked to find that the episode was all about how she was "old enough" to make her own decisions about her life, and deliberately disobeyed her father's command that she stay home. Instead, she lied and sneaked out of the house and jumped on an airplane in defiance of her father's wishes. Several other episodes of the show since that time have contained the same rebellious behavior.

I waited to see what my sweet daughter would do about such blatant disregard for the 5th and 9th Commandments, and to decide when I was going to have a conversation with her about it. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. R told me immediately after watching the episode that she couldn't believe that HM would do such a terrible thing! Without me saying a word, she told me that HM was breaking God's Commandments and that she couldn't believe it. We talked about it a little more, until I was sure she understood that she was always to behave in a godly way, regardless of the way people she likes on TV are behaving.

Several days later, I was folding laundry when R came up to me and told me that she had something important to talk to me about. Having forgotten the events from a few days before, I was completely surprised to learn that she had been thinking long and hard about our conversation about HM. She told me that she was very upset about the way HM had been behaving on the show, as well as with the behavior of the actress that played her in real life. R told me that she no longer thought MC was a Christian, but someone who was heading in the opposite direction from God. I sat and listened with awe as R told me that she had been thinking a lot about it, and that she had finally decided that she no longer liked HM, and didn't want to watch the show anymore.

And now, whenever we go to the store and we see HM merchandise, R just shakes her head and says, "No. I don't want that. I don't like her anymore." This is BIG, people. I mean, R LOVED HM and MC. She at one time wanted everything in her bedroom to be labelled with HM. She got the wig, the microphone, the makeup, the clothes, the posters, the school folders, pencils, pens, umbrella, cds, itunes songs, etc. with the HM logo on it. She LOVED it.

But, she has also gotten over it, almost overnight. She has done a complete 180. She has decided, all on her own, to have as her role models, young ladies who more closely follow the Lord and His Commandments. She has traded in the worldly ways of HM with more god-fearing characters like Laura and Mary Ingalls, and Elsie Dinsmore.

While my daughter is far from perfect, this new decision of hers has really impressed me. The fact that she would have the maturity in her young spiritual life to see something that violates God's law, that most of the world would think is "no big deal", and go against the flow and completely change her life to "flee from all unrighteousness" is truly astounding to me.

It gives me a glimmer of hope that whenever Jay and I are teaching our children about the Lord, R really is listening. And that gives me so much peace, that we might just be doing something right with this parenting thing.

Like I said before, I am one proud mama. :o)