I like toys. I mean, I really like toys. When our children were young, I enjoyed going to the toy section almost as much as they did. And Christmas time? Well, I really get a kick out of watching the kids open their toys. Yes, I try to be a good Nanna these days and buy some “needed” things. But, toys are so much more FUNNN – right??\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Now, let me make something clear. Even though I really like toys, I can’t bring myself to pay full price for them. Nooooo. My love for a good deal always overrides that cute toy. If it’s not on clearance…or at least on sale…it probably won’t make it into my buggy. On the other hand, let me run into an outstanding clearance sale on toys and you will find me standing in the aisle while trying to think of which GRAND “needs” this for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Because of the size of our family, (combined with my\u00a0determination to watch my spending), my Christmas shopping is year-round-shopping.\u00a0That’s right, folks.\u00a0I started shopping in January for this Christmas and have already made a pretty good “dent” into\u00a0our family list. A couple months back, I came across one of those amazing, can’t-pass-this-up deals at our local Walmart. As I quickly scanned the toy aisles for clearance stickers, there they were…in the back aisle…way up on the top shelf…just about out of sight. I just stopped right there and looked up. If I remember correctly, there were five of them left. Five scooters at 75% OFF! That is PERFECT! That will be the oldest 5 GRANDS “big” toy this year. They will have a ball riding them out on our big front porch (and probably through the hallway into the kitchen)! YESSSS!<\/p>\n
Wait a minute…<\/p>\n
What is that a picture of? What kind of scooters are these?<\/p>\n
Right then, in my mind, the struggle began:<\/p>\n
It’s a GREAT deal!<\/strong><\/p>\n But what theme is portrayed on them?<\/em><\/p>\n It’s just<\/span> a scooter!<\/strong><\/p>\n But what characters would you be encouraging in your grandchildren?<\/em><\/p>\n Now, although I was not completely familiar with this theme, I felt I had a pretty good idea of the characters involved. HOWEVER…the struggle continued (I say that to my shame) and so I told myself, “I’ll just walk through the toy aisle and take a look at them. Maybe….just maybe they aren’t THAT bad.” It didn’t take me long to see dark, strange,\u00a0unnatural,\u00a0unhuman characteristics in these creatures represented. That’s it. I can’t do it. As great a deal as it was, those scooters would\u00a0NOT come from Poppa and Nanna.<\/p>\n This past Sunday evening, we enjoyed hearing Br. Larry Wells preach. He took his text from Revelation 9 which included the following:<\/p>\n “And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.\u00a0And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.\u00a0And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.\u00a0And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.” Revelation 9:7-10\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Even though the above is straight from God’s Word, it could just about be a description of some toys today – dark, strange, unnatural, unhuman creatures. The only difference is, the above is NOT a toy description. The above is a description of events that are REALLY going to take place one day. And, as Br. Wells preached,\u00a0it was his belief that these locusts are actually demons.<\/p>\n The definition for toy is<\/strong>: an object for a child to play with, typically a model or miniature replica of something<\/span>: “a toy car”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Another definition:<\/strong> an object, often a small representation of something familiar<\/span>, as an animal or person, for children or others to play with<\/em><\/p>\n \n With the above definitions in mind,\u00a0some questions today would be – What are our children playing with?\u00a0What do their toys model? If their toys are miniature replicas, what would the “real thing”\u00a0represent?<\/p>\n From all my trips to the toy section I do know this –\u00a0not all toys are child’s play. Let’s be\u00a0cautious and discerning\u00a0in our selections for our children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n “…I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Romans 16:19<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I like toys. I mean, I really like toys. When our children were young, I enjoyed going to the toy section almost as much as they did. And Christmas time? Well, I really get a kick out of watching the kids open their toys. Yes, I try to be a good Nanna these days and buy some “needed” things. But, toys are so much more FUNNN – right??\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 Now, let me make something clear. Even though I really like toys, I can’t bring myself to pay full price for them. Nooooo. My love for a good deal always overrides that cute toy. If it’s not on clearance…or at least on sale…it probably won’t make it into my buggy. On the other hand, let me run into an outstanding clearance sale on toys and you will find me standing in the aisle while trying to think of which GRAND “needs” this for Christmas. Because of the size of our family, (combined with my\u00a0determination to watch my spending), my Christmas shopping is year-round-shopping.\u00a0That’s right, folks.\u00a0I started shopping in January for this Christmas and have already made a pretty good “dent” into\u00a0our family list. A couple months back, I came across one of those amazing, can’t-pass-this-up deals at our local Walmart. As I quickly scanned the toy aisles for clearance stickers, there they were…in the back aisle…way up on the top shelf…just about out of sight. I just stopped right there and looked up. If I remember correctly, there were five of them left. Five scooters at 75% OFF! That is PERFECT! That will be the oldest 5 GRANDS “big” toy this year. They will have a ball riding them out on our big front porch (and probably through the hallway into the kitchen)! YESSSS! Wait a minute… What is that a picture of? What kind of scooters are these? Right then, in my mind, the struggle began: It’s a GREAT deal! But what theme is portrayed on them? It’s just a scooter! But what characters would you be encouraging in your grandchildren? Now, although I was not completely familiar with this theme, I felt I had a pretty good idea of the characters involved. HOWEVER…the struggle continued (I say that to my shame) and so I told myself, “I’ll just walk through the toy aisle and take a look at them. Maybe….just maybe they aren’t THAT bad.” It didn’t take me long to see dark, strange,\u00a0unnatural,\u00a0unhuman characteristics in these creatures represented. That’s it. I can’t do it. As great a deal as it was, those scooters would\u00a0NOT come from Poppa and Nanna. This past Sunday evening, we enjoyed hearing Br. Larry Wells preach. He took his text from Revelation 9 which included the following: “And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.\u00a0And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.\u00a0And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.\u00a0And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.” Revelation 9:7-10\u00a0 Even though the above is straight from God’s Word, it could just about be a description of some toys today – dark, strange, unnatural, unhuman creatures. The only difference is, the above is NOT a toy description. The above is a description of events that are REALLY going to take place one day. And, as Br. Wells preached,\u00a0it was his belief that these locusts are actually demons. The definition for toy is: an object for a child to play with, typically a model or miniature replica of something: “a toy car”\u00a0 Another definition: an object, often a small representation of something familiar, as an animal or person, for children or others to play with With the above definitions in mind,\u00a0some questions today would be – What are our children playing with?\u00a0What do their toys model? If their toys are miniature replicas, what would the “real thing”\u00a0represent? From all my trips to the toy section I do know this –\u00a0not all toys are child’s play. Let’s be\u00a0cautious and discerning\u00a0in our selections for our children and grandchildren. “…I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Romans 16:19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting-children","category-wisdom-discernment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-1kG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5127,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126\/revisions\/5127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}