Creation Inspirations Blog

It is always an honor and a privilege to have my book reviewed and shared as a tool to spread the gospel and disciple children. Today, Amanda at Impressyourkids.com posted a sweet review complete with cool pictures of her kids doing the Bird of Paradise project.

Thanks Amanda! Follow her blog or friend her on Facebook to get other fun and easy ideas for making faith part of day to day life with your kids.

By the way, if you and your family do one of the things to do and would like to share pictures that I can post, I’d love to have them!

Be Inspired!

Cheryl Pickett

I’m SOOO excited! April 22 is Earth Day and for the second year in a row, Disney is releasing an epic nature movie. Last year, it was “Earth” and it followed the lives of several animal families. Most of it was happy in true Disney style, but the reality of life was shown too.

This year’s film is called “Oceans”. They showed a short preview of it last year and I’ve been looking for the commercials for at least a month now. Finally saw one last night. It was filmed using the latest and greatest underwater technologies and I can’t wait. Granted, there will likely be info about evolution, but don’t let that stop you, just be prepared to talk a little about it if you have kids with you.

The last one was almost two hours of breathtaking scenery that  just filled me with awe once again for the Creator and His creation.We may get to go this weekend depending on my work schedule. Cool thing is Disney is donating some of the proceeds from opening week to help save coral reefs (which, if you aren’t aware, are regularly dying from a wide variety of stresses including pollution, and other human interference.

Here’s a link with more info. Feel free to comment here, let me know if you see it & what you think.

Be Inspired!

Cheryl Pickett

In part one, I mentioned I almost chose not to go see the movie because of some comments I’d read online, maybe you’ve heard or read something similar but maybe not. The gist of comments was that Christians should not see the movie. Those I happened to see were on a blog that a well respected pastor I follow on Facebook happened to link to. Under his link were comments by some who echoed the sentiment along with those who didn’t.

The main issue for those saying it was a no-go is the fact that a major theme of the movie is a that the “religion” on the fantasy world is an equivalent to how some people worship “mother earth”.

And that is completely true, there is a big focus on all things being one, the goddess/power being able to heal and gathering and chanting almost in a frenzy while connecting to both the goddess via a tree and their ancestors.

However, there is nothing in the movie encouraging people to abandon their beliefs and try what’s depicted instead. There is also nothing blatantly anti-Christian or pro-any other specific faith. That being the case, I see no reason not to see the movie I believe, some of the religious aspects can easily be related to our Christian faith.

For example, someone is brought to the goddess power for healing. The community gathers and simultaneously prays for healing while the priestess character leads the process. So that’s different that what we do when we ask God to heal someone or lay on hands during a service how?

There is also the concept that everything is interconnected and the source of life flows through all creatures and all of their  natural surroundings. Again, we believe the same, the God is the creator and giver of life, and we as humans are connected to the world around us. Our actions, good or bad, effect other people, animals and plants too.

To sum things up, while not everything “worldly” can be used as a tool to spread our faith, I think Avatar definitely can be. In my opinion there’s enough value for it to be a both a positive influence on one’s Christian faith as well as a potential way to start conversations with non-Christians.

Okay, now it’s your turn.

Have you seen it? Are you a Christian or no? What did you think with regard to your faith?

Be Inspired!

Cheryl Pickett

I’ve decided to add a review category here so that I can share resources or just stuff I like/dislike with you. Because I don’t have a ton of time, I won’t be doing a lot of them, and most will probably be books, but I’m going to kick things off with Avatar, the movie.

First, for those of you who don’t know me well, I don’t go to see a lot of movies because most of what’s put out now either is offensive in some way or poorly written or both. With that understanding, you now know how much it means for me to say that I truly loved this movie in addition to being inspired by it. It has been said that the technology used will advance movies much like those of Star Wars or Titanic and I agree. It’s also creatively beautiful and stunning at times. If you like sci-fi and want a brain break from daily life, it’s worth your time and money.

However, that said there are a few things to be aware of if you are planning to take a kid, or as a Christian. First, there is some adult language. The main characters are former military and they play up the rough edges. If you/your kids avoid seeing things with any such language, don’t go.

Along the same line, there is graphic violence. In my opinion, some of it is over done-I get it, blow stuff up, blow up more stuff, battle scenes. There is also a hunting/kill scene. Most of it is not as gory as some of what’s on TV especially on the crime shows, but again, if that’s something you totally want to avoid, again, you might want to reconsider.

I’d also like to take the opportunity to address some comments I’d read before I went to see it. One almost convinced me not to go, but in the end, I’m glad it didn’t.

1. The story is not new: This is true. For the most part, the story lines are familiar, which is true with many books and films. If you want a totally unique storyline with lots of surprise twists and turns you won’t find it here though there are a couple.

2. It’s a political statement of James Cameron/the studio: Could be,  I haven’t heard any direct statements either way and I get enough politics from the news so I wasn’t even looking for stuff like that in the least. If you enjoy analyzing books/films in that way you’ll probably find several angles to think about and discuss with others who enjoy the same.

Part 2 coming soon!

Be Inspired!

Cheryl Pickett