The Auto-Tune generation

In the golden days of Hollywood the biggest stars worked their way up through Vaudeville to get onto the big screen.  Their talents were manifold.  They could act, sing, dance.  They had spent years (not days, weeks or months) in dance class, acting class, music class, voice class.  Others specialized in physical comedy, earning their money the hard way by taking the fall... and paying dearly for it in their old age.

Today's stars don't have to worry.  They can have their faces and bodies airbrushed to perfection... or have a face-lift and liposuction if they prefer.  They don't have to learn how to dance either.  They simply let a body double do the work, digitally overlay their face onto the shot and voila, they're a dancer!  As for singing, just pipe their voice into a computer, stir in some Auto-Tune and they're instantly a professional singer.

Our children are the Auto-Tune generation!

I admit, it's not like this for everyone.  However, today's youth are bombarded with enough technology to replace almost everything for which the previous generation had to work so hard.  Think about it, today's youth don't even need to learn how to type!  They can speak to their computer (or phone) and it converts their speech to text.  There is so much information on the internet that youth need hardly lift a finger to do all the research they need for a school project.  Unfortunately for them, you can't trust everything you read on the internet (in fact, I trust very little I read unless the source is reputable).

Now, I'm not against technology... after all my career is in the Information Technology sector.  What concerns me is that our youth may be forgetting how to be themselves.  They can create a Facebook account, post pictures and status updates that say whatever they want.  They can paint a completely convincing picture to the world of one person and a picture to their parents of another.  With technology, they can, on their  Facebook page, whiten their teeth, cover up their pimples, take the frizz out of their hair, shave off ten pounds... they can even put themselves in a place they've never been.

One problem here.  With all this technology and information they can't make themselves happy.   What young people see when they look at others' posts on Facebook or Myspace are often "perfect" people.  People who haven't a care in the world.  People who have the best time whatever it is they do.  Why do they see this?  Because everyone wants to be seen as having it all... having what their friends have.  Teens don't want to be seen as being less well-off as their peers.  They want to be in control of everything, and if they can't be in control they want to at least make it appear they're in control.

What this does is build a false sense of worth in our teens.  First they see what others appear to have and they don't have.  Then, whether out of selfishness, vanity or a sense of inferiority (or all of the above), they set forth to obtain what the others have.  Not because they need it or even because they want it, but because it makes them appear to be someone they aren't.  Then the cycle repeats itself.

As Christian parents we need to break this cycle.  It's our responsibility to help fill our children with the things of God.  We do that by placing the things of God in front of them, both by training and by example.  If our children see us in a never-ending race to keep up with the neighbors they will place a higher priority on worldly things.  If they see us more concerned with following after Christ they will place a higher priority on Godly things.

What is important to you?  Are you focusing on your career?  Could it even be you are trying to keep up with your friends in the church?  Their children are in the puppets, children's choir and the teen band, so you think yours should be as well?  Your children aren't ignorant.  They know whether you're focusing on them or on their keeping up with the other kids.  Make certain your children know by your actions that they are the most important things on earth to you!

We need to help instill in our children the confidence that Jesus Christ is all they need.  They don't need to be somebody they aren't because they have everything they need in Him!  So that it doesn't matter to them if their best friend gets an iPhone for Christmas because their hand-me-down slider gets the job done!

Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Christmas at the Wright's

Every year for Thanksgiving we have two family celebrations; one with my family and one with Dana's.  This year it was nice that both family celebrations were within thirty miles of one another.  Normally that isn't the case.  We so enjoy getting to see our families and this year was an especially fun time as we had great nieces and nephews that we hadn't seen in quite some time come up from TX.

On Thursday we normally go to Dana's family Thanksgiving.  We eat tons of turkey, honey-baked ham and brisket.  Then we eat tons of pecan pie or various other desserts.  Then on Friday we go to my parents' house and do it all over again!  And at each gathering we sit and visit for hours, retell old stories and laugh until we forget about how much we just ate.  It's always so much fun!  We're always so worn out when it's over but not quite ready to go home.  We're only glad to be home when we finally crawl into our own beds for the night.

However, at Christmas we stay home and take time to enjoy the holiday as a family unit.  We try to make Christmas as special a day as possible... because it is the day we set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

Honestly, we don't get into "Christmas" that much.  We don't go overboard on decoration.  In fact, up until the past few years we didn't have a tree at Christmas.  We would normally set up a nativity and place the gifts around that.  I always thought that was much more in line with the way Christmas is told us in scripture, although there is much debate as to the timing of the arrival of the wise men and the manger.  But we'll leave that discussion for another time.  Suffice to say we try to make Christmas about Christ.

One thing we have done for many years is to make use of Adorenaments.  I don't think these are made anymore but you might find them on Amazon or Ebay.  They are a wonderful way to help your children focus on just who Jesus is in the days leading up to Christmas.  There are twelve Adorenaments (ornaments), each one with a different name for Jesus.  Each name has a scripture reference.  So starting about now (the 12th), and each night up until Christmas eve, we place one Adorenament on the tree and read the story associated with that name for Jesus.

Also, and I'll probably catch it for this but here goes... we don't do Santa Claus.  We decided when Lindsey was a baby that we wanted to be faithful to our children in both big and small things.  We have always believed and done our best to demonstrate consistency with them.  When we tell them something we have always done our best to make certain we follow through on that so they have no reason to doubt us and therefore no reason not to trust us.  We decided that, as seemingly harmless as Santa Claus is, it was not going to work with the decision we had made.  Our kids aren't warped and they don't miss out on Christmas because of this.  In fact, I believe they appreciate Christmas much more being able to see and discern the real meaning of Christmas from the Christmas all the retail outlets would have them believe (if you get my drift).

So if you ask Lacey what Santa got her for Christmas and get a blank stare, it's not that she doesn't understand what you're asking.  It's that she knows Santa didn't get her anything but doesn't want to spoil it for you. ;)

Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."