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After you’ve heard “Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show,” check out this devotional thought. (If you haven’t heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)

Watching a movie

By Ashley Padgett

“That’s an hour and a half of my life I will never get back.” My sister Emmy has often made this remark after watching a movie that she found especially pointless. In most cases, she’s joking, but it does get me thinking. How many hours do I spend with my attention held captive by a video game, a TV show, or a movie? And how often do I actually learn any lesson from it? How often is there a point in my entertainment? Second Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.” So how can we do that when the Thug Clotgrippers of the world are trying to make everything point free?

What if we could make some of that pointless entertainment actually have a point? Why is it that I’ve heard my sister say that line so may times? It’s because I’m usually sitting right next to her as she’s watching these pointless movies! Because we’re spending time together, we’ve taken what could be a complete waste of time and turned it into sister time together! Though the movies may not have a point, our time together has been meaningful to me. We’ve found a point within the pointlessness.

Besides Adventures in Odyssey (which is your favorite entertainment, right?!), what is some of your favorite TV shows and movies? Do they have a point? What are some good alternatives to mindless entertainment? What are some points you can take from pointless entertainment? Post some of your ideas here!

After you’ve heard “The Mystery of the Clock Tower Parts 1 & 2,” check out this devotional thought. (If you haven’t heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)

Sweeping

By Ashley Padgett

Last summer, I worked at a camp for a few months. It was a lot of fun, but there were certainly a lot of long and tiring days for those of us on staff.
One day, my friend Brittany was sweeping the kitchen before we left for the day, and I noticed that she didn’t have a dustpan. I went and grabbed one and held it as she swept. I probably would have never thought about it again, except that Brittany mentioned it to me several days later. She said that day was an especially hard one for her. Everything had been going wrong and she was on the brink of tears all day. As she was sweeping, all she could think about was how bad that day was going. But then, when I got the dustpan for her, she said it really picked her up to know that someone cared. It made her whole day better.

I never would have guessed that such a simple act could change someone’s whole day!

We saw something similar in “The Mystery of the Clock Tower,” where Alicia’s small act of anger changed everything for her sister. Eugene told Matthew, “if you take one action, than another action is likely to follow.” We have to be careful with our decisions, because sometimes our actions will cause hurt for others. But we also should be on the lookout for ways we can affect people in good ways! With my friend Brittany, I gave her a smile and helped her (cause) so she felt better about herself and her day (effect).

What are some ways you’ve seen Cause and Effect in your own life? What are some ways that you’ve been a good “cause” in someone’s life? How have you seen the “effects”? Tell us about it in the comments below!

After you’ve heard “The Jubilee Singers, Parts 1, 2, & 3,” check out this devotional thought. (If you haven’t heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)

The Jubilee Singers today

By Catherine Wilson

The Jubilee Singers sang songs like “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and “The Gospel Train.” Have you ever sang songs like those or “This Train is Bound for Glory,” “Children Go Where I Send Thee,” or “Go Tell It on the Mountain?” I always loved these songs, but for a long time, I didn’t know their history. Christians wrote them in slavery many years ago. When these songs were created they weren’t written down, but they were sung over and over, and memorized.

Now that I know the story behind the music, I like to think that by singing these songs, I have a connection to the authors, and the other Christians who’ve sung them. Now I can sing “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and remember that one-hundred-fifty years ago, Christians were just as excited about Christ’s birth as I am now, even though they were in slavery.

It’s so special to sing these songs because we are brothers and sisters in Christ with the authors of the songs we sing. By singing, we can praise God with brothers and sisters from all different walks of life. And by knowing the history of these songs, we can sing them with even more enthusiasm because we know why they were written!

What are some of your favorite church songs? Do you know their history? Let us know in the comments below!

After you’ve heard “Grandma’s Visit,” check out this devotional thought. (If you haven’t heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)

Dinner?

By Catherine Wilson

In “Grandma’s Visit,” when the Parker family got to know their strange relatives, it sounded a little too familiar to me. I took some unusual vacations when I was a kid. While other kids were going to Disney World or to a cabin on a lake, I was going to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house. When I got there, the table was always set with raw hamburger, cabbage boiled in lemon juice, hummus, spinach turnovers, and mashed garbanzo beans. These are the kinds of foods that my grandparents ate on a regular basis! After watching all the adults eat this strange dinner and eating all the plain rice that I could stand, it was time for me to do the dishes. Who would call this a vacation?

My grandpa has since died and my grandma can’t cook by herself anymore. And guess what? I really miss those big meals at Grandma and Grandpa’s. At the time, I spent way too long complaining to myself about the weird food. Now I look back and miss the good conversations, and the fun games that I played with my cousins.

You’ll never guess how I connect with my Grandma now. I’ve decided that I really like all that “weird food” now (well, except for raw hamburger). When I go see my Grandma I ask her to help me make stuffed cabbage, hummus, and spinach turn-overs. I never would have thought of those “weird foods” as something I would like, not to mention make it for myself and my friends!

I’ve realized that I love my family, especially the “weird” stuff. That’s really what makes them unique and special. Just like the Parkers, it took me a while to realize how cool my weird family was.

Do you have any unusual family traditions? What does your family do to stay connected? Let us know in the comments below.

After you’ve heard “For the Birds,” check out this devotional thought. (If you haven’t heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)

By Catherine Wilson

Camilla’s adventures with pets reminded me a lot of my own family’s pet experiences. Just like Camilla, my parents told me that our family was a “no-pet family.” And just like Camilla I really, really wanted a pet. Then, one day in the summer, in the empty lots behind our house I saw a creamy-white and orange tabby cat. “Hi there kitty, do you belong to somebody?” I asked. I knew it wasn’t safe to pet a strange animal and the cat wouldn’t let us get within ten feet of her. Still, I was excited. Maybe God sent this cat to our family!

Some of my neighbors and I looked for its owner, but no one came to claim her. We took turns with the neighbors leaving food for the cat, and named it Tammy. Tammy got to be more and more friendly, eventually letting us pet her. The leaves began to change color and I asked my mom again if we could keep Tammy. She finally said, “Catherine, if winter comes and that cat still doesn’t have a home, then we can talk about keeping her.” I was so close! I practically had a pet!

One day I got off the school bus and Tammy wasn’t there! One of my neighbors had taken Tammy to the vet for a check up. I thought that was nice. If Tammy was healthy, maybe that would be all my mom needed to let me adopt her! Then, after dinner, my neighbors came over to tell me more news: “Catherine! Catherine! The vet’s assistant adopted Tammy!”

How disappointing! I was so close! Like Camilla, I was sad that things didn’t go my way. I was even angry for a while. That was going to be my cat! But I had to learn that even though it wasn’t my plan, God had taken care of Tammy and now she was in a good home.

In Matthew 6, Jesus said, “look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” Jesus is telling us that He will take care of our needs. I guess that I didn’t really need to have a cat.

Sometimes things don’t turn out the way that we hope, but we have to learn that God’s plans are bigger and better than ours, even when we don’t understand what’s happening. That vet’s assistant was probably better at taking care of cats than I would have been. I’m sure that Tammy and her owner are very happy together.

Have you ever had any adventures with pets in your family? Tell us in the comments below!