A Wish is a Feeble Prayer

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

I Am Not My Daughter's Conscience

We sent our oldest daughter off to college in late August. She was homeschooled from the beginning and moral education was and is a top priority in our home education. About 7 years ago we chose to discontinue cable television and be more careful about the kinds of entertainment we watched on television. The only thing we watch are videos or dvds of movies that we check reviews on or TV series that we know are unobjectionable. None of us believe we have missed anthing by not seeing the TV shows, commercials, or made-for-TV movies that are standard fare for cable or broadcast television. On the rare occasions we have rented an R-rated movie (usually for language) we use a built in capability in our DVD/VCR to blank out bad language. The bottom line is: We don't want to watch movies/shows that use bad language, show nudity or sex scenes. We are free and revel in the liberty of a clean heart and mind.

All that to say that my daughter reveled in her freedom away from home and family restraints to start viewing a lot of movies that were not allowed at home. She would tell me about the movies she was watching and I was alarmed at the amount of R-rated fare she was consuming. Yes, she told me what she was watching. She may have been using poor judgement but she was honest.

What made me more concerned was the fact that my daughter had often been the watchdog for what the family watched. Many times she would be the one to say, "Mom, we shouldn't be watching this." And we would stop whatever it was and take it back to the rental store.

I knew that I could not tell her what to watch while she was away at college. If I were to forbid her to watch something inappropriate she may be compelled to disobey me or follow my instructions with a bitter heart. Neither response would be healthy or instuctive in using wise judgement to make good choices.

So I decided to pray to my Heavenly Father, who is also her Heavenly Father, and who cares infinitely more about her well-being than I do. I asked the Lord to convict her where she was making poor choices, help her to guard her heart against ungodliness and give her strength to do what is godly.

On her first visit home the conversation turned to her movie watching habits. My younger two children were sitting at the table listening to our conversation. My college student said the Holy Spirit had convicted her that she was watching some movies that weren't appropriate and she had made a commitment to only watch movies/programming that she knew we would watch at home. I cannot tell you how proud I was to hear her say that. And more than that, I was grateful to God for His faithfulness.

Thank you, Lord, for hearing a mother's prayer for her daughter and answering so graciously.

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