Sometimes we get stuck seeing things our way. Would you like to see some things through another set of eyes? Maybe it will make you think and stretch or maybe just chuckle or shed a tear. Here is my world through my eyes...
Anthony Smith is a four year old that has no hearing in one ear and only limited hearing in the other ear. You probably wouldn't be surprised to know that he decided that he doesn't like wearing his hearing aid. Sounds like a kid. He told his Mom that he wouldn't wear his "blue ear" hearing aid because, superheroes don't wear hearing aids.
That makes perfect sense for a four year old. It also revealed what was important to him, for example, superheroes are currently his mentors, he is interested in that job possibility in the future and wants to prepare for that eventuality now, and obviously he is thinking of his future and wearing a "blue ear" didn't fit his vision.
Anthony's Mom apparently was not an expert on superheroes so she wisely consulted with someone who was. She emailed Marvel comics and ask if there was a hearing impaired hero and they responded that Hawkeye was indeed hearing impaired.
But Marvel didn't stop there and before they were done they sent some drawings as you can see below.
Isn't it nice that people can come through for others once in a while? Isn't great that a company that exists to make money and produce entertainment can see more than the masses and can see the needs of one little boy and come through for him? And that Super Heroes not only sometimes need a hearing aid but that every super hero needs a Mom to lead him in the right direction? Hurray for Mom's who help us find reasons why we CAN reach our potential instead of let us be satisfied with reasons that keep us from being our best selves. Thanks Mom!
The other night my daughter brought this movie home for us to watch. I had wanted to watch it since it came out. Needless to say that 9 11 has been an important happening in our lives. To have a movie that attempted to tackle that from a young boys perpective really got my interest.
The movie did an excellent job in my opinion in showing the grief of a young boy for his father's death in that disaster. The boy has aspergers syndrome so you shouldn't expect him to act exactly like your average boy in his grief nor in his daily life. I felt like the movie did an excellent job of showing this throughout the movie.
Similar to the book the movie did an excellent job of showing how the father played by Tom Hanks was a perfect father for him, engaging his son and showing his son how much he was loved despite or maybe because of his peculiarities. That is what really impressed me with the book was the relationship between father and son. The father turns out to be an excellent model of how we must accept our child where they are and provide the love and security that wll allow them to flourish. The father in this movie was trying to help his son learn how to interact with others (a typical weakness had by those with asperger's syndrom) and in that way stretch his son beyond his bounds.
The book contrasted this good father (Tom Hanks) with the grandfather who had not been presnt in the fathe's life. Much of that was absent from the movie and all the things I found objectonable in the book were left out as well making the movie more powerful in the showing the relationship between the father and the son who are the central characters (this despite the fact that the father is shown in flashbacks).
The movie however flipped this lesson on it's head and did an excellent job by showing something else better than the book managed. While the whole book and movie seem to be about that father son relationship, the end of the movie lets us see something tha we missed or didn't see clearly throughout the show, that is the mother's relationship to the son and how integral it is. Sandra Bullock does a good job of acting the part of the mother who is left out of their child's life.
Toward the end of the movie the son says to the mother: "I ddn't know you could think like me." and she responds that she didn't know that either. With that enlightening moment we are able to see some of the things differently throughout the movie. Yes, the boy has lost a perfect father for him, but because of that loss we are now able to see that the mother can become that perfect parent for him too, and that is a revelation to both of the characters in the movie and maybe to the viewers as well. This movie starts out being about the father-son relationship but ends up spotlighting the mother-son relationship. It is a movie for both parents, a movie where both can feel valued and see their potential even with the exceptional child portrayed in the movie.
I probably will not read the book again but I would watch the movie again and I would consider reading another book by the author. By the way, be prepared to shed a tear at this movie.
Watch the trailer below.
The sound track is exceptional as well an is done by Alexandre Desplat
I'm learning that there is something that happens to a man (at least me anyway) when he gets around age 50. Maybe it is because this is the time around when his parents, other family and friends begin to die. Or maybe it is because that man's children are reaching the age of marriage and parenting. Additionally aches and pains and other disruptions begin to happen and help the man see himself as he has really always been -- weak. So between those two veils that we call birth and death there is much to temper a man and turn his thoughts from all those things that might have distracted him (money, sports, career and etc.) and those things seem to lose their allure as he contemplates more seriously than ever before where we come from and where we are going.
By accident I ran across this song on my ipod that I had forgotten about entirely. I wanted my daughter who is close to having her first child listen to this. This song so excellently gives the feeling of hope at the birth of a new baby, "I've been hoping I know how to raise you right". Surely most parents have that hope. Maybe another neighboring hope would be to add, "I hope I don't get distracted from raising you the best I can".
The idea of having to guess about what is best at any given time is one that is true for parents. With no experience and only half paying attention to other parents, we become a parent where all of a sudden a long train of "what do I do nows" come along. These will actually keep us busy for the rest of our lives. Like even now with my children who are grown that question comes up when I think about my current role. And so...I keep making my best guess, hoping that I'll get much of what I do in the realm of "right" even if not "right on".
This song somehow seemed to connect with feelings about my father-in-law who died a few months ago. I remember the family prayer with the request that he be there to meet each of us as we take our turns to come through the veil in the future. Dad was a singer and I could imagine him taking us through the veil as we closed our lives on this earth singing lullabyes as he might walk us through the night toward the light.
A beautiful song that brings the joy of those coming, the best of being here as a parent and looking forward to joining again with those who are gone before us, all together in one song.
Cherie Call sings "Walk You Through the Night".
Walk You Through the Night
(Cherie Call)
I don’t have eyes in the back of my head
I don’t wear bright red knee high boots or a leotard with an “S”
And I only have five senses, the sixth one’s never there
When I don’t know why you’re crying I just have to guess
I see you’re having trouble sleeping, so am I.
I’ve been hoping I know how to raise you right
I can’t cast a magic spell, but I can take you for a trip around the block
Rest your head now while I hold you tight
And I will walk you through the night
As we walk beneath the sparkling stars
Your body’s getting heavier, you’re finally giving in
And my mind slips through the future, to the troubles you could have
And I don’t know how to fix them, I just have to guess
You are bound to have some nightmares, so am I
But you can count on me to hold you when you cry
I can’t take it all away
But I can tell you I’ve been down this road before
I can’t promise that I’ll always get it right
But I will walk you through the night
And if it’s raining, I will drive you
And if it’s late at night, I don’t care what time you call
I may not be the best at very many things
But I believe I love you perfectly.
Time goes by so relentlessly
I hope that you outlive me, that’s how it’s meant to be
And I believe in Heaven, but there are still some things
That I just can’t fully fathom, I just have to guess
If God will grant my wish, I will wait for you
Beyond the veil just before you slip through
And as you softly close your eyes
I will sing my lullabies to you
And before you make your way into the light
I will walk you through the night
Noah Hartsock is a player on the BYU basketball team. He has been probably the most consistent player on the team this season. He is great with shooting percentage and points per game and blocked shots and a lot of other basketball stuff. He was even the WCC player of the month. But basketball isn't the point of this blog.
In an article in the deseret news that you can see from clicking here, his father, Dave Hartsock, was quoted as saying: "We're fortunate all our kids have turned out well. Noah works hard, he's got a good disposition. We haven't been trying to make basketball players, we've tried to make good men and if he turns out to be a good basketball player in the process that's good and we're really happy for him." Noah is known for taking things as they come and continuing on just as happy as before. An example of that was Christmas 2010 he was driving home with his wife early morning Christmas Eve and their car flipped on some ice. The injuries were few and he finished the season with his normal demeanor and good play. Click hear to read more.
"We haven't been trying to make good basketball players, we've tried to make good men" -- he says. As a parent I try to think to make that my goal as well to help our children be good women and men rather than to give them some competitive advantage in a field of work or a sport.
I would hope that all parents would do the same, try to raise their children so they are good people. Being good people has much more advantage in life than some other training we may give them. Having a home that trains family members to be good people has a much more long term advantage than training in sports or even accounting, engineering or even social work. The advantages go beyond getting a job with a decent salary. Being a good man has advantages that goes even beyond life into the eternities.
There have been some times in my life when I had to remember that I wasn't raising a great swimmer, basketball player, world renowned artist or even spelling bee champ, but instead was raising some great girls who were just good people. Remembering that changed some actions and emphasis we put on things in our family.
I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991
How Do You Tuck In a Superhero? by Rachel Balducci
This is a picture of the author's family
This was an awesome book! I have never raised a son and have often wondered, as a father of daughters, how those little boys running around church and other places would ever amount to anything. This book is written in such an excellent and engaging manner that it sucked me in and really gave me hope for this generation of boys. I've been telling my friends about this book and suggesting that they should read it (women friends) just to understand their husbands better. I even ordered another copy to give to a friend that has several sons, I thought it would be a comfort. She does a good job of sharing some of her families stories to help show her points. She manages to share her wonder of the boys as well and lets us see things fresh as she has learned them herself. This book had me chuckling out loud and reading parts to my wife not to mention the occasional teary eyes. I recommend it if you have any interest in how males grow from those clueless hoodlums to grown and decent men. The author is Catholic and brings in a little religion but doesn't knock it over your head but instead it does make it friendlier to a religious crowd. Read it you'll enjoy it!
Escape from Rwanda by John Bizimana
This book is about a boy from Rwanda. His father died when he was a child and due to the loss of income they went from fairly well to do to poor. With all the troubles that arose in Rwanda they soon were trying to get away either to live with family or to refugee camps: to Zaire, Tanzania, and Zambia. His mother died in a refugee camp and he ended up taken by extended family where he was left in a boarding school when his aunt and uncle went to Belgium because he couldn't obtain the documents needed due to the chaos in that part of the world. Finally he made it to Belgium. Every step of the way he proved to be better than expected, doing well in school and everything that he took up. His dream was to get to the United States. In Belgium because it seemed he would never get his dream and he started to despair. Naturally that is when he ran into the missionaries at a basketball tournament. After joining the church with fervor and then losing focus there and finally becoming reactivated a past prophets grandson provided the money while the Lord provided the miracles for him to make his dream come true as he was accepted and is attending BYU.
This is a YA novel of a dystopian future. It compares very favorably with Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which I read earlier. Matched has the same feel except it takes out the violence and improves the characterization and may be better written as a result. Cassia lives in a society where everything is controlled as much as possible by the government. To the point that when teenagers are 17 they are matched with another youth who would be their best mate. So they start a period of getting to know the other person and go on supervised dates with them eventually leading to marriage. Cassia is not a radical and complies very closely with her societies requirements, until she starts to see some errors and other things that are not working out like they should. Her family goes through some struggles and a friend is put in danger because of a choice she makes. Plus she has feelings for someone other than her match. It has some very clean romance and forebodings of a government gone amuck. Naturally there is another book coming out in a couple months that will continue the story. And the romance is just what you would expect from an LDS writer.
Ally Condie
Patch-Word Quilt by Paula J. Smith
So there we were up on that mountain on our anniversary and in the cottage we were staying in one of the books in the collection there was written by the owner of the property. I read a little bit of it and it seemed to be a self-help book. How to strengthen ourselves in some areas and weaken ourselves in others. Basically how to become a better person. So we ended up purchasing a copy thinking it would be nice to have a book written by a person we had met. It is a small book that takes a number of words like Hope, Fear, and Self-confidence and describes if they are good for people or not and how to strengthen/weaken them in our lives as needed. I didn't agree with every idea that she had but I did like the quick and easy way of going through a lot of complicated things and making it simple and straightforward. I enjoyed reading it. It seemed like a good book for a young person who hadn't heard too much about these things or a person who needed some encouragement to know they could change and be different if they found them self in a place they were unhappy with. Paula said that she had studied psychology and had found times in her life when she needed to hear the things that she had written in the book. A fun, quick but thought provoking read.
My Mom has been a good example to me over the years. My Mother made sure I knew she loved me. That was one of her strengths: that not only did love me but was able to deduce how I felt love and she loved me in a way that I felt she loved me. (Some other time maybe I'll have to blog about the difference between being loved and feeling loved). I felt loved.
It is certainly possible, since I am the youngest, that I benefitted from her experience with my siblings. My Mom is good at loving other people, beyond the family, too. Oh, don't get me wrong, she sometimes gets irritated, she sometimes says the wrong thing, she can be stubborn whether for good or ill, but if we look past those few occasions then I think we can easily see that her ability to love and care for others is one of her greatest strengths. About four years ago she made a decision that would end up changing several people's lives, some of them drastically.
I'll take credit for getting things started like this: my family had over the previous 3 years had a couple of foreign exchange students, one from Russia and another from Mexico. We really enjoyed each of those young ladies and had positive experiences with few difficulties along the way. So I suggested to my Mom that she consider having an exchange student. I could tell the idea appealed to her but she was concerned that a young teenager (ages 16-18) wouldn't want to live with such an old person with no exciting teenagers to hang out with. I think secretly she wondered if she could handle having a teenager to be responsible for again. These two concerns were not so easily worked out because they were in her head and would take some actual time working with the student to get over.
She chose a young woman from Russia, she went by the American name of Anny despite her name being Anya. She was popular in Russia, with a boyfriend, a brother and parents and grandparents that were all very close. Anny of course knew nothing of the Gospel and my Mom had told her some about it prior to her coming, but needless to say it was hard to comprehend hearing it in English and she didn't understanding much of the impact it would have on her life. Mom told me later that she chose Anny because she had a feeling that she should choose her.
Anny came and soon was learning the various ways that the gospel impacts our lives on a daily basis. Things such as modesty, daily observance of activities to turn our thoughts and hearts to Christ, several times weekly church attendance, and caring for others. Despite the foreign situation both culturally, religiously and family, Anny adjusted. Because my Mother loved her so easily and willingly Anny was able to adjust very smoothly and learn the lessons of "why" instead of just doing what she had to in a new place.
Mom loved her and taught her, calmly (okay, the occasional frustration), and in as much detail as she needed. As a matter-of-fact, Anny ended up getting just what she needed from an elderly lady and Mom had another opportunity to do just was God made her best at. I think God using Mom this way helped her to realize that she still had value in this life.
Over time Anny loved going to church, made friends with teens and adults alike. Anny participated willingly in scripture reading and study in the home. Anny attended not only Sunday services and Wednesday services but also early morning seminary services as well.
As time was growing to an end, Anny expressed some interest in being baptized. Mom and I felt like she needed to return home to her family and decide if baptism was what she wanted. After all the church wasn't even available in her town. It seemed to Mom that she would appreciate the same consideration if it was her child in a foreign country. So Anny returned to Russia. In a few months Annie returned back to Mom's to attend college locally and requested to be baptized. I agreed to do that baptism for her.
She was happy. She loved the gospel because she had been loved by a master (if I got the benefit of my Mom's learning from my siblings then Anny got even more because of what my Mom had learned from me). Anny decided she wanted to go to BYU and eventually was accepted there. Anny embraced the gospel and the gospel embraced her. Her family was supportive all along the way.
One big day for Mom was when Anny went to the DC temple to receive her endowment in preparation for getting married in the Portland temple. Anny with her family from Russia, was here along with Dane and some ward members. That was a big day for Mom.
As you know, all good true stories must have multiple new beginnings, and this is true with my Mom and Anny's story. Anny met Dane, who coincidentally has served a mission in Russia so he spoke the language that her parents know and can communicate well with them. Anny and Dane were married in the Portland Temple last summer. We traveled there and experienced the excitement along with them. Dane's family is quite large with several children (I never was able to count them all but I am thinking 13). So Anny is getting accustomed to such a large family when she had no experience with any family larger than two children in Russia. Anny's family of her Mom and Dad and brother were able to come for her wedding.
Dane's family loved her brother Anton who stayed for a couple months with Dane's family and joined the church. Anny's parents understand the gospel more than ever and who knows that when the time is right and missionaries finally move into their town in Russia but...
Anton, Anny's Dad, Dane, Anny, Mom, Anny's Mom
Anny's family took to Mom and responded to her love as easily as did Anny. They expressed appreciation and honored Mom during their stay here. Anny's parents paid my Mom a huge complement when they said, "We raised her for sixteen years but you are the one who helped her become the person she is today."
This story continues on and hasn't stopped and I don't expect that it will. You see, Anny has two families now, well I guess even three. She has her parents and brother, my Mom and the rest of us, and now of course Dane's family as well. So a Russian girl who had a desire to learn English well, ends up a die hard Mormon with American roots dug deep into both ends of the country and ever deeper in the gospel soil.
A Mom's love can work miracles. My Mom's love has done so more than once.
The world needs courageous fathers! Somewhere along the way many fathers have gotten the impression that they do not have many or even any responsibilities with the kids, or that they can pick and choose the duties that they will fulfill for their children. As a result of this our role as fathers has been made into slapstick and played for laughs in movies and other media. That continues the downward spiral by giving new generations of men the idea that they are not capable or needed as a father in the home. As it stands 43% of American children live without a father in the home.
A new movie is coming out later this summer called Courageous that deals with the importance of fathers stepping up and being an integral part of the family. I applaud this movie and it's attempt. Below you can look at the trailer for the movie. I saw it when I was in the theater watching Soul Surfer. One scene I remember was a man talking to some of his buddies saying something like, "I have been half of a father to my children and I want to be better." "Don't be so rough on yourself" says one of his friends. Then he determines he is going to do a better job and be a part of his children's life. His wife is disbelieving but begins to trust him when she sees some of his efforts.
Courageous movie trailer
That is what we need to do as Manly Men. We need to be willing to do the hard as well as the simple things with and for our children. We need to do better at sharing the duties of parenting with our wife. As we do this we will feel a greater part of our children's lives and see and feel the benefits of becoming a father.
Elder Packer tells us some of the benefit of being more involved: "To you who are young, this experience of loving someone more than you love yourself can come, insofar as I know, only through the exercise of the power of creation. Through it you become really Christian." (Boyd K. Packer address to CES personnel at BYU, 15 July 1958) I understand that to mean not just the act of procreation, but inclusive of the daily actions of protecting, raising, teaching, and loving that child is what helps us "become really Christian".
Naturally we can't change nor help and protect every child. We can however do what is needed with our own children. Those of you who haven't had any children yet need to commit yourself to this. It will not be easy nor convenient, but if you put your priorities in a more Godly order then you will recognize that your "creations" need the same attention and caring and preparing and teaching and so forth that our God gives to us. In my mind, being a father and parent in general, is training to help us be more like our Heavenly Father. So while our children need us, in reality we need them too.
As we recognize things that our children need to be taught, we find that we have a greater desire to be that good example too them. Now, all of a sudden, when you have that child in your arms and in your life you have stronger reasons to be the person you always knew you could be and wanted to be. With that child everything is multiplied because your example will now last generations and not just die with you. Tens and hundreds, even thousands of lives will be blessed, or cursed by your choices
Here's some beginning things to teach your children from David O' McKay: "We should ...awaken in the minds of the youth a realization that to be honest, to be dependable, to be a loyal citizen of the country, to be true to the standards of the gospel are the noblest ideals of life" (David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, p. 264).
This past Sunday I was the substitute teacher in Sunday School. The main parable of the lesson was the Prodigal Son. This quote in the lesson by Gordon B.Hinckley has really had me thinking: "Every parent ought to read it again and again. It is large enough to encompass every household, and enough larger than that to encompass all mankind, for are we not all prodigal sons and daughters who need to repent and partake of the forgiving mercy of our Heavenly Father and then follow His example?” (“Of You It Is Required to Forgive,” Ensign, June 1991, 5).
As a father my thoughts tend to turn first to what it must have been like for him. Here is a poem I wrote as I contemplated what it must have been like for the father.
Prodigal's Father
He sat and watched the horizon
remembering the day, feeling the feelings, again:
his failure, the guilt, the teetering hope.
The day life changed family changed peace and comfort changed to pain and loss.
"I know he has struggled, chafed under family rules but please Lord, bring him safely home."
This prayer mumbled aloft, thought again and again, prayed on hurting knees over and over again.
There is no doubt that we as men don't have adequate appreciation for all that Mothers do. They keep so many things going including the magic of cleaning clothes and making meals and often working at a job and calming, teaching and raising children. So much to do and much of it is a challenge.
I had a bit of an opportunity for a few months to learn some things about motherhood from the inside. When my wife and I moved to this state we agreed that the first one to get a job would go to work and the other would care for our three young children at home. One was entering the first grade and the two others were not old enough to attend school at the time. So as luck, or more likely Heavenly Father, had it my wife found the job first. That meant I was going to learn a lot and have a very interesting several month experience. I stayed home to care for the children, met my daughter after school and prepared dinner daily. I think I was first string on washing the clothes too, but I'm sure my wife could tell you for certain. Over time I began to do day care at my home and had as many as 8 children at home at a time. I learned to appreciate mothers more than ever!
As I think back there isn't a lot of detail sticking out in my mind. Oh, a few specific outstanding experiences and some memories of my learning to make homemade salsa (that was an interest of mine at the time) and I remember writing during nap time, but most of the day to day experience of things is lost to my current memory. So I have a little insider enjoyment of this video clip entitled "In tha Muthahood". It is a rap song that is fun and clean.
I first saw that video on a blog that I read (click here to go to it). Hopefully you can smile and laugh at the video and not wince and grimace. That reminds me of a movie about parenthood that Lisa and I saw years ago. We thought it was pretty funny initially. Others that we recommended it to didn't think it was funny, they said it hurt or was too much like their family to laugh.
Mothers most often shape the world for us as a child. And that shaping lasts far into adulthood. Because mothers are so influential they have gotten much of the blame for things that are going wrong in society as well as in individual people's lives. I hear that a lot in my field when someone tells me that their behaviors now are due to their mother. I say if you can think that through well enough to verbalize it that clearly, then you can figure out that you are responsible for your actions now, not your mother!
The truth is the vast majority of mothers really do all they can and make tremendous sacrifices for their children. I had an opportunity today to talk to two mothers. One was retired and her children were grown and another had one child who was just high school age. The younger one expressed concern over how much to push her child to get him to grow and become the person that he can be. The other looking at life from the other end was settled, peaceful and supportive of doing the best you can but trusting that they will remember what you have taught them when it is critical. We decided the trick was in not pushing so much that they learned not to take responsibility but not so little that they didn't think it mattered. Not an easy balance to make.
As a father, I have been pleased to be a part of that shaping of our children. I have seen close up the tremendous love and detail involved in motherhood as well as the tremendous sacrifice and deferral of self that a mother does to care for and prepare her children on a daily and life long basis. I could never diminish those who have fulfilled their life by being a mother. Instead I can learn from them.
My mother has been a great influence in my life. I chose this picture, which is from Christmas 2005, because she has always loved Christmas and Christmas time. She has taught me that love, not just for Christmas but for Christ. Aside from that she has taught me to love and care for people, all kinds of people not just ones like me. She has taught me many things that I treasure to this day and plan to treasure throughout my life. Her influence in my life has gone through me now to my own children. And since all of them are girls I fully expect that my mother's influence will have great impact on another generation...soon. Thanks Mom for everything and don't worry, I won't forget you.
As I write this we just got back from a movie. I rarely see a movie in the theater for a variety of reasons. One is I am old enough to have a hard time paying nine dollars to see a movie. Another is that too many movies have things in them that would embarrass me. And third I usually only go to a movie with my family.
So my wife and I decided to go on a date today, Hooray! We had been talking about going to a movie on a date since the beginning of the year but the couple times we looked at the current movies we couldn't find one that both of us would like. Our tastes in movies run very different which I may have to blog about another time. But this movie seemed to fit all the criteria (see the trailer at the bottom of this blog) and I had read a good review by Chris Hicks (click here to get to it).
And I was right! It was really great. But first there are two things that are important to note: One: modesty is not embraced by much of Christianity and secondly surfer girls apparently are not high on the modesty meter either. If you can accept that problem the movie was superb. As Lisa and I discussed the movie afterwards we realized that the immodesty was not done at all in a sexual manner. It is a bit jarring initially but is fairly easy to overlook because there is no sexual energy from the script, the actors or the camera work.
I'm not a good judge of acting and all that so I'm not claiming the acting is great (although it may have been), but I was very impressed with the story which is based on a true story of a young woman who was just budding into a great surfer when she was attacked by a shark and her arm was bit off. The young woman's name is Bethany Hamilton who is played by AnnaSophia Robb. I remember reading about this young woman a few years ago and the courage she showed. Helen Hunt from Mad About You was the mother and Dennis Quaid played the father, both showed some good and accurate portrayals of trying to be strong through such a harrowing experience.
The movie shows that excellently. I am amazed at how well they were able to show the struggles and difficulty overcoming both the mental and physical trauma (considering it is just a movie less than two hours). It is amazing how they were able to picture the actress with one arm, it was digitally done (since the actress actually does have a left arm) but worked excellently. Incidentally at the end of the movie they have some video footage of the Bethany Hamilton (the real girl and her parents) which is enjoyable to see as well.
The message, to not give up in the face of extreme difficulties, is well done. The message that faith in Christ can help us through our trials is present, and may feel strong because it is usually left out, but is not heavy handed. There was even some meaningful religious imagery shown after the attack in a spiritual experience she had. The message that family is hugely important is grandly shown. In addition the photography is beautiful (the scenery) and amazing (some of the surfing and shots underwater), thoroughly enjoyable. In addition the music was great (I was especially attracted to the instrumental pieces as you might imagine and one pop song that was actually written by Bethany Hamilton according to the credits. This movie is a great movie to impress on each of us including children that faith in Christ really can be a strength. I recommend it highly. This is a family friendly film, but I would suggest forewarning about the immodesty before going to see it. This one is worth watching more than once.
