Culture Club

I love it when life lessons I attempt to muddle through are re-taught in church the same week. It's such a high for me to have the kids lean over, nudge me in the ribs, and say, "Hey, this is what we talked about!"

So here's the story:

My kids go to a Christian homeschool Co-Op for a half a day per week which teaches art, music and drama. Valentine's parties were last week and so began the Valentine's party box saga. Half my kids have no creativity, therefore their boxes have their names on them and not much else. The other half are overly creative. Their ideas for their Valentine's box are so grandiose, not even a genius engineering architect could come through with the amount of assistance needed to put those together.

Jeff helped Jack make his box into an ipod. It was cute. It was easy. I already had the duct tape. Oh, how I love the duct tape!

As we were sitting in the parking lot of the Co-Op, I was admiring Jack's ipod. He had was looking down. He looked distressed.

I asked him what was wrong.

He hem-hawed around. Then he looked at me and said, "I wish Dad hadn't written that on there..."

I'm still confused. Then I see he's pointing to the "Shinedown" name on his ipod playlist.

"But why Buddy? That's your favorite band."

"Because it's not a Christian band, and the teacher won't like it. I'll get in trouble for putting a rock band on it."

We postponed our entry to the Valentine's party while I explained my stance on the subject. It broke my heart that my child felt this way... that anyone could make them feel this way. It broke my heart that our Christianity can be translated into such black and white terms. If we looked at others and based their Christian worth on what clothes they wore, what music they listened to, and whether they had a tattoo or not... well it would be downright wrong...

A) We would misjudge a lot of people

and

B) It's not up to me to judge anyone.

We have friends who answer their phone "Jesus Loves You," instead of "hello". Does this make them more of a believer than me? Nope. It actually just makes them annoying.

I explained to Jack that while I love me some Shawn McDonald, Toby Mac and The David Crowder Band, I also love Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, and yes... even some Lady Gaga.

It's nothing to be ashamed of. I do not want my kids to be ashamed of who they are. It doesn't make me love Jesus any less because I listen to secular music as well as Christian music. I don't let my kids listen to music with cuss words, or I get the itunes version for them that has the cuss words blanked out.

I want them to have balance.

Balance. It's something I've struggled with for most of my life. And I want them to learn early that we can have balance in our lives and make life so much better. It's like a recipe... adding a little flavor makes it so much easier to swallow...

You can hear Tommy's talk about Losing Culture here.

He is so much more interesting to listen to than I am. Really.