Six months ago, at my baby shower, my mother prayed that my little one would know the difference between Ariel (from “The Little Mermaid”) and Ariel (she pronounced the Hebraic way which sounds more like Ari-al). She was comparing our hope for Jerusalem (Ariel is one of the names for Jerusalem), and a Walt Disney character.
At the time of the baby shower, I was convinced that my little boy was a girl, which is one of the reasons why she mentioned Ariel. But there were more reasons then just that and the obvious play on words.
The other day I was asked by someone who had attended my baby shower if my mother hated the “Little Mermaid” and referred to the prayer she had given. She was half joking but I realized she really wanted an answer. I was surprised that she had remembered (as it was from half a year ago), and stumbled out an inadequate reply (as I had not expected the question). This is more or less (more on the less side) what I told her:
Disrespecting Little Mermaid
The honest truth is that, yes, my mother does not like the movie “The Little Mermaid.” As there were people in the room at the time I was asked the question who grew up loving her and there are probably people reading this right now who love her too (http://www.littleariel.com/) I had to preface my comment with the words something along the lines of:
“Little Mermaid lovers, PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!”
It may just be a good thing that my blog site doesn’t have my mailing address..
More seriously now, this blog is not an Ariel-Bashingfest.
But, as a side note, my mother does not like “The Little Mermaid” because of her blatant disrespectful attitude to her father. One can argue that Tritan was “old fashioned” and that Arial HAD to behave in the way she does to him, just so that he would listen. But this flies in the face of verses such as “Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father” and “Honour thy father and thy mother, as YHWH thy God hath commanded thee.” (Lev 19:3, Deut 5:16)
If I had spoken in such a fashion to my parents I would have been in BIG trouble. If a child does not learn to respect his parents that are here on this earth, how will he learn to respect the father that he cannot see?
What my real point was (and the main point that my mother was making) is making a comparison with what one CAN fill a little child’s mind with, and what SHOULD fill a little child’s mind.
So What Should Fill a Child’s Mind?
Parents can decide to fill their children’s minds with the things of this world, it’s philosophies and dogmas (which often fly in the face of God’s word) thinly veiled with sugar icing (who doesn’t like sugar icing??).
Or they can decide to fill their minds with the things that God loves. Making such people as David and Joshua their heros, and stories such as Esther and Ruth the ones that they want to hear over and over and over again!
Once children develop a taste for the one it will make it that much more difficult to develop a taste for the other.
What better thing can a child crave then the kingdom of God?
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