"Honor Begins at Home"

I don't cry in movies.

This is what I tell myself. And for the most part, it's true. I think I can count on one hand...okay, maybe both hands…the number of movies which have made me cry.

I don't sob in movies.

Ever. I mean, it's a movie - not realistic, right?

Wrong.

"Courageous", which recently came out, and which I saw last weekend, made me bawl.  Right there, in the middle of the theater. I cried for...oh...over an hour during a two hour movie. And I cried again on my way out to the parking lot, just thinking about it.

It's one of the best movies I have ever seen in a long time.

It shares a message that everyone needs to hear - not just Dads,  to which the message of the movie is directed.

You should go see this movie. It's worth the $9. 

Courage. 

Courage is doing what's right even when it's difficult. It means holding on to the truth even when all you can do is ask "why?" and when the only thing you can think is "Make sense of this for me".  It means admitting you're wrong.  It means standing up again after you've fallen down for the tenth time, or the twentieth, or the fiftieth.

"Courageous" (the movie) speaks directly to fathers - it's a plea for them to stand up and be men, to fulfill the role that they were called to.

I know being a father has unique demands, responsibilities and expectations that no other job has. But everyone has a purpose in life.  Everyone has something they were called to: being a daughter, a friend, a sibling, a son, a mother, a husband, a wife, a student, an employee, a boss…

If this is what you have been called to, than the expectation is that you fulfill your calling with excellence.

Are you being a friend to the best of your ability?

Are you serving your family to bring glory to God?

Are you loving your siblings?

Are you being courageous in your specific calling? Are you chasing after righteousness and holiness right where you are? Are you standing for what is right, as it is defined in Scripture? Are you resting in the truth through painful and difficult circumstances?

The by-line of the movie is "Honor begins at home". 

As my parents often told me, "If you can't do it at home, you won't do it anywhere else."

Is your life at home a life of honor?

Check out the song/video Casting Crowns made for the movie:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkM-gDcmJeM

Let's stand up and fight apathy: be courageous.

Let's live lives of honor.

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." [Titus 2:11-14]