Daily Devotional for Tuesday November 13, 2001

Harry Potter and your Child

(Proverbs 22:6)

One of the things I try to do each day, one of my main goals of this Devotional, is to help you translate your Christian faith into your real day-to-day life...taking the spiritual side of our life, and making it real, in our very real day-to-day living. For those who have been reading these Devotionals very long, you also know that I hold the Bible to be God's inspired, inerrant Word, and THE absolute Truth, the final authority over all matters in our life. There is no room for compromise. One of the biggest things that has hit our popular culture in the last couple of years that is an issue for anyone with children, are the Harry Potter books and upcoming movie. Harry Potter has received much international attention due to the fact it has become very popular with children, and the books have actually helped many kids learn to enjoy reading or read at a higher level. These books and upcoming movie have also come under incredible attacks from the Christian community due to the sorcery, magic, and other occult/mystical/New Age aspects to the storyline.

***Please do not miss this. My goal today is NOT to bash the Harry Potter books and movie, but to encourage parents to take an even greater role in monitoring what your children read, hear, and watch. Even more important, to take the TIME to put what is in our popular culture like Harry Potter, N Sync, MTV, and all else they are exposed to, in a Biblical context.

PARENTS: YOU CAN NOT CONTROL ALL THAT YOUR CHILDREN WILL SEE AND HEAR. YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOW, AND AS EACH DAY GOES BY, MAKING EVEN MORE DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES. THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB THAT YOU HAVE IS TO LAY A BIBLICAL FOUNDATION IN THEIR LIVES FOR THEM TO MAKE THOSE DECISIONS!!!

While taking our faith and making it real in our daily life is an underlying motivation in all of these Devotionals, I try to be practical. I am not going to debate the content of these books or movie, because it clearly has many New Age elements to its storyline. In all due respect, and understanding the good intentions most have, I do find the outcry of these books and movie by some groups to be a bit much. I am not defending these books in any way. When I was growing up, my favorite movie, and one of the most popular in movie history, was the Wizard of Oz. Witches good and bad, a wizard, magical spells were all part of this classic story. STORY. My parents, fine Christians, would explain to me in my younger years the fantasy aspects of Oz. They also provided a daily environment of prayer and time in the Word, with the church being a large part of our family life. Because of that, I clearly understood the Wizard of Oz was a story, fictional, and not real!!! I have spoken recently with some older saints who were alive when the Wizard of Oz first came out. They tell me that this movie, which is now considered one of the most loved of all times, received the exact same criticism from the Christian community of that day, as Harry Potter is getting today. Interesting.

The real bottom line to this Devotional today is for you parents, who have children, to be an active part of their life. God gave each of us free will; that means your kids too. But while they are growing up, until they leave home, God has given you the responsibility of building a spiritual foundation in their life. It is, without a doubt, the most important job or ministry you have. In that capacity, you should know and be aware of what they watch on TV and on the Internet. You should know and be aware of the books they read. There should be open and honest discussion of the content of what they are watching and hearing on a daily basis, so that you can help them understand this world we live in. More importantly, help them to put the things they are taking in each day in a Biblical perspective. This daily relationship with your children will give them the spiritual foundation from which they will build their life on,

FROM WHICH THEY WILL MAKE THEIR DECISIONS!!!

Again, God gave each of us free will and as the Prodigal Son did, as I did, as many have done, they may rebel and forsake the road they should be on for their own. There does come a point when your only recourse is to pray and trust the foundation you have laid in their life to hold them. Also, never forget, God loves them even more than you do.

Again, please do not read into this Devotional an endorsement of the Harry otter book series. Personally, I think the Left Behind series is much better and much more profitable because of its content. I will not, however, tell you that your child will be irreversibly harmed by reading these books or seeing the movie. It all boils down to your involvement in their life!!! You need to know what they are reading and what they are watching, so that you are able to give them perspective. You can't shield them from the things in this world that are not pleasant. They are living in a sin-filled world where they are going to be exposed daily to the effects of sin on our world. Your intimate involvement in their lives, especially in those 0-18 years when they are developing into what they will be as adults is critical. Rather than trying to control their environment, which is ultimately impossible, help them to understand it so that when they start making their own decisions, they will have a Biblical basis for those choices.

I love you and care about you so much. I know everyone loves their kids so much. I spend much of my prayer time each day praying over your children as you send in prayer requests for different situations. Open your heart and hear what the Lord is saying to YOU today through this Devotional, and know that there is no book, no movie, no Internet site, nothing this world can produce that has more power than the God of this universe. Help them to understand that while Harry Potter is a fictional character like the Wizard of Oz is, God is very real, with very real powers, and He is the only one who deserves our praise and worship. I know many will be disappointed I didn't take this time to blast Harry Potter the way most Christian leaders are today. I think it is FAR MORE PRODUCTIVE to use this issue to encourage and empower parents! The spiritual foundation you lay in their lives while they are young is what will sustain them when they are older.

THAT IS THE MESSAGE TODAY!!!!!