Mamma's Top Pick #1 - Courageous

I recently promised to occasionally feature one of my Top Picks. So, how will I be choosing these features? Well, occasionally I run into a book or a movie or some other type of media that I have found so helpful as a mother, it has changed my life, my perspective and really, who I am.

This is rare. I can think of three or four right now that I will be writing about in the future. But after that, I can't force myself to discover more. Timing is always crucial with this. Occasionally, it seems that God has answered my prayers with the perfect book or movie that I needed to experience at that point in my life. 

Also, this has almost always happened because someone, or several people, recommended a movie or a book to me. My hope is that I may recommend something that would be helpful and inspiring to you.

Today I will give you my first Top Pick. And let me just say that these are in no order. Because this one is listed as #1 does not mean that it's the best I've got; it just means that I wrote about it first. And my reason for writing about this Top Pick first is that I watched it just this week, so it is fresh in my mind.

Like I mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of cheesiness. Inspiring is great. Cheesy, not so much. The things I find inspiring are what strike me as real, relatable and within reach. Right there you might say, but with God, all is within reach. Yes, I know, I know. But I wouldn't say that my faith is childlike anymore, nor my outlook on life. I am definitely an optimist, but a realistic optimist. Is that possible? I think it is.

As I write this, the Christian radio station is playing. And the song that's playing makes my skin crawl. It just does. It is the epitome of cheesiness - a semi-rap pop song about how the singer was "made to love." Well, cool, cheesy Christian man. You were made to love. And obviously, we all were. But this song is over the top and does not make me feel loving, but rather irritated and like if someone bugs me too much, I might hit them. Maybe that's just me :)

So, because of this aversion to cheesiness, I often avoid Christian music, books and movies because I think they will always fall into this category.

But I must say that in the past few years, I have been surprised by a few things. Maybe it's because I'm changing. But I would still argue that much of the Christian media falls into what I would call the cheesy category. Sorry. I'm sure I'm offending someone. The trick for me is to find the occasional thing that doesn't.

Courageous (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We have watched a couple of the more recent popular Christian movies, and I have been pleasantly surprised that that they are not too cheesy! In fact, I would argue that 99% of the mainstream romantic dramas that are released are much more cheesy than the Christian movies we've seen.


And finally, my Top Pick for today is the movie Courageous, a Christian movie about today's fathers. This movie was inspirational; Jason and I both came away from it feeling moved to be the best parents we can be. You could argue that it's cheesy, but I found that it was a tolerable level and that it was also very real. I could relate and empathize with the main characters and understood their struggle.

This movie encourages us not to settle with being "good enough" parents, but asks us to strive to be exceptional ones. Not a small feat, but something that Jason and I want to work towards.