Choices

Last Friday I took Payton to the Hannah Montana-Miley Cyrus Concert. It was her birthday gift so she had been long anticipating this day. She was so excited to go and I was excited to be going with her. The Arena was packed....every seat was filled. It was out of control. There were girls ranging in age from 4 to teenagers. It struck me that each one of the girls in the Arena most likely looks up to Miley Cyrus and idolizes her. In their minds she is someone they would want to be like. So the concert started and she was "Hannah" for the first half. She was cute, singing and dancing and there was a lot of "effects" on stage to keep our attention. The second half of the show was the real "Miley". I was a little shocked as to how this portion of the concert proceeded. Miley was a little more "rough" and dressed way older than her 13 years. She was no longer the sweet little thing she portrays on television or even in real life. I actually felt a bit uneasy having Payton watch Miley turn into this person on stage that we were not familiar with.

It's very public that Miley's dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, is a Christian and he wants nothing more than for his daughter to be raised as "normal" as possible. So, the turn of events in the concert came as somewhat of a surprise to me. I started to think that, gosh, God gave Miley Cyrus the gift of such an amazing voice. I wondered if He would be proud of the way in which Miley is using her "gift". She's famous and she has such influence.... she has such a captive audience. Yet, to me, she appears to be meshing into the rest of the group...just like the rest of the "famous people". I guess its easy to sit back and watch what others are supposedly doing wrong. I should be asking myself if I am using the gifts God gave me for His purpose. Am I living as an example for my kids? Do they recognize that I am using my gifts to glorify God? For Payton and Connor's sake (as well as my own), I hope to never live as though I am meshing into the rest of the group. After all, Jim and I are the primary influences in our children's lives. Sure, they will be affected by people and things in the world....but, ultimately, we are accountable for how they are raised. We only get one chance to raise them. I hope to live as an example for them. I choose to raise them with the expectations God has set for me.