Cartoon Dreams

Value:  An allegory about temptation Belinda was a good girl.  She tried to keep the right kinds of friends and together they tried to stay away from things they knew their parents and teachers would not approve of.  Most of her friends were from the church so they listened closely to the sermons, the Sunday school lessons and other instructions they got at church to make sure they knew what was right.  Belinda also did as she was taught and read the bible and prayed even though she didn’t always understand what she prayed and if she prayed with her eyes closed, sometimes she went to sleep. One day daddy brought home a new pet.  His name was Pete the Parakeet.  For several days, everybody had fun talking to Pete but he didn’t say much.  But it was clear that Pete had come to the house to be Belinda’s friend.  So he lived in her room. “Wake up Belinda.”  Pete suddenly said as she dozed off reading her Bible. “Did you just talk to me?” ...

Value: Lying Lots of us have imaginary friends.  John had one and he talked to him every day.  John’s imaginary friend was named Duncan.  Since John was an only child, he had lots of time for Duncan.  Whenever mom and dad were too busy, he and Duncan made up lots of fun games together.  They would play in the yard and turn it into a wonderful forest full of wild imaginary creatures.  Sometimes they were spacemen fighting the evil Lord Gnulle and his army of mutants.  Duncan and John always won.  Other times Duncan would just get in his jammies and watch movies with John and make funny remarks about the adults. One day John and Duncan were working on a fort in a part of the yard where nobody ever went.  Duncan had already talked John into taking scrap wood from building sites near by even though John didn’t really feel ok about it.  “Go ahead.”  Duncan said.  “Look, they have so much wood.  They won’t miss a few boards....

Value: Helping the Poor The one thing Pudgy and the older baby polar bears he played with loved to do is explore.  Sometimes their moms and dads let them go out in a pack and explore the many coves and hills that made up their beautiful polar world.  They made sure to stick together mostly but often split up in small packs of two to explore several coves at a time.  That often turned into a game of hunt and catch with the smaller packs attacking each other playfully and wrestling and sometimes falling into the frigid ocean as they played.  They loved the cold water and it made them even more playful. Pudgy really liked being with his friends, Boris, Hector and Philippe and playing all day while the adults did whatever it is that adults do.  One day they had found a whole area of coastline that they had not explored so they were very excited.  Suddenly as Pudgy and Boris were playing tag in the water, they heard Hector hell out with excitement “HEY LOOK ...

Value:  Blessed are the Pure of Heart All little lemurs love to play.  They play all the day and every day they play.  Why any day that a little lemur doesn’t play is a bad day for a baby lemur.  Little lemurs know hundreds of games.  They know hundreds of games because they make up dozens of games every day.  Sometimes they play a game that has no rules, no objective and nobody knows when it ends or who ever wins.  The idea is just to play,  play, play,  play, play.  Mommies of little Lemurs know their babies are healthy when they play from the moment they wake up until the moment they lay in their cribs to sleep and when they are asleep, they dream of playing. But the mommy of little Lloyd Lemur was worried.  Lloyd didn’t seem to want to run out into the field to run and jump and play with the other little lemurs.  He didn’t want to climb up and down hills and rocks and fallen trees and spring out at his friends chasing t...

Value:  The Story of Abraham and Israel Note:  The following is a modern rendition of when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  Keep that in mind as you read it because it will seem somewhat odd to your listeners and you should be prepared to explain it to them if they get confused during the telling.  JM Abe and his only son Zack loved to camp and fish and hunt.  They usually set aside a couple fall or early winter days for the outing.  This time, they were out just a week before Thanksgiving.  Usually when they hunted, they didn’t care if they shot a bird or just took pictures of one.  But they brought guns because there were bears and large cats in this area of the country. The first night, Zack hit his sleeping bag early and Abe was enjoying a quite fire in the cool of the evening when he felt God speaking to him. “God?” Abe said to the inner voice that was guiding him with very specific instructions.  “I am listening...

Value:  The Sabbath Day “God is going to hear you talking about that Tommy and he won’t like it.”  Steve told his best friend as they were going to school Monday morning. “Well I don’t get it.  What is Sunday even good for anyway?  I don’t get it.  We go to church every Sunday but nobody knows why.  Maybe it’s just a bunch of goofy rules the church made up so why should we do it anyway?”  Tommy said in a snotty way.  Tommy really was a good boy.  He loved God and his family and all those things but sometimes he just had questions and he wanted someone to tell him the truth.  Lots of us are like that. “Tommy, be careful.  If you keep asking those kinds of questions, well God can hear you.”  Steve said but Tommy said “fine” and he meant it.  He didn’t care if God did hear him.  If God wanted to show him why Sunday was important, that would suit Tommy just fine.  Tommy thought about it all day at school. ...

A Swear Word in Heaven Value:  Foul Language is bad. In heaven, running and playing was what all the children are supposed to do.  Ever since Jesus came and got them, Georgie and his family were blissfully happy in heaven.  And for Georgie, there was so many things to see and do and you never had to be afraid or come in after dark or worry about getting hurt or bad people because you can’t be hurt or get sick or meet any bad people in heave because heaven is full of people that love Jesus just like he did.  So if he ran screaming in joy through the streets, nobody complained and in fact, the angels and Jesus himself might run into the street and play kickball with him. That is just the kind of place heaven is. One day Georgie was trying to figure out how old he was.  Since there is no getting older or days or months in heaven, he might be a bazillion years old for all he knew.  He never worried about it but he was playing with little diamonds that he ...

A Raven Named Marvin Value:  Respect Authority “Hannah, come outside.”  Hannah’s best friend Betty called up to her.  Hannah slipped downstairs. “What is it?  It’s the middle of the night.”  Hannah said shivering a bit from the cool night air.. “Its Lorenzo, he’s run away, we have to help them find him!”  Betty said with deep concern and worry in her voice.  Lorenzo was a neighbor of Betty’s who lived several houses down.  Many times when Hannah was over, they found Lorenzo wandering the streets or in some strange place, just not being home.  He told them things were not good there because his new step dad was mean to him but the girls didn’t know what to do. “How do you know he ran away?”  Hannah whispered. “Officer Duncan and Youth Director Cindy came over and told my dad.  Dad works at the youth center and they have been trying to help Lorenzo.”  She told her friend.  It was true that Lorenzo had come to Off...

A Bad Dream Value:  Forgiveness and Reconciliation “DAD how dare you look in my diary?”  Max screamed at his father in fury.  Chuck was red with anger at his little boy for what he read in that diary. “How dare you lie to me?  You said you would never smoke a cigarette and right here in this diary, you confess you have.  Your promises are no good to me now Max!”  Chuck yelled at his young son. “Well my privacy is ruined.  How I can ever trust you again!”  Max said crying. “Me?  Its you who lied and I can never trust you again.  I wish I never had a son.” Chuck said and right away he was sorry he said that.  Max burst into tears and ran out the door to go down the block to his friends house to hide.  Chuck slammed his hand down on the counter and hurt it.  He hated fighting with his son.  Parents hate it when their children are mad at them.  It hurts them way down inside but sometimes they are proud and ...

Cartoon Dreams Value:  Is Idolatry Bad? Kimberly loved cartoons.  It was a pretty big hobby before but when mom and dad let her have a TV in her room, she really started loving cartoons even more.  She loved the old ones a lot like Bugs Bunny, The Roadrunner, Popeye and lots of new ones too.  Recently the one she liked best was Roscoe Rabbit.  On Saturday nights, they play three hours of Roscoe Rabbit in a row.  So Kimberly goes to bed early to curl up for a long fun evening of watching cartoons. As half hour episode after half hour episode drifted by, Kimberly thought she felt herself drifting off to sleep.  She really couldn’t tell the difference between sleep and being awake.  Suddenly she woke up feeling a strange shaking sound and a high squeaky voice saying, “Kimberley, Kimberley, wake up, we have a long way to go and a lot to do.” She felt herself come away slowly and suddenly bolting up staring right into that strange face.  “...