Something Nice...

Shortly after Les and I were married, Bambi was being shown in the theatres.  Now back in the day, it was not uncommon for some Christians to abstain from attending “movie houses”.  I didn't attend a movie, except for the movie Joni (Erikson), until I was married. No, I didn’t get married in the dark ages, but things were a lot different in 1981 than they are now.  Minimum wage made a huge jump from $2.30 to $3.35 an hour, a postage stamp was .15, computer technology was excited to offer 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k, mobile telephones in cars (car phones) were hitting the market, and I walked 2 miles to school uphill both ways…if I missed the bus.

Back to Bambi… In that day, movies would play in the theatre and eventually, they would end up on TV. But Bambi was a huge box office hit. It was never going to be on TV. Seriously, the movie was made in 1942 and Disney refused to play it on the Wonderful World of Walt Disney, family television at its best in my opinion.

At first, Les didn’t want to take me to see Bambi. That was sissy stuff in comparison to the likes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Superman II. Eventually he caved in to my pleas and I was as excited as a 6 yr old sitting in the dark theatre with my popcorn and soda. When Bambi was shot when man [was] in the forest, I determined not to be a sissy and choked on the lump in my throat. Much to my surprise, I heard Les sniff, and even though it was dark, I could tell when I looked at him he was crying.

I absolutely adored the movie. In high school a few friends nick-named me Thumper. I didn’t get it until I “met” the mischievous character with the big cheeks.  One of the things that stood out to me, and made Thumper a role model for this eighteen year old young bride were these infamous lines:

MRS. RABBIT: What did Father tell you this morning?

THUMPER:  If you can’t say somethin’ nice…don’t say nothin’ at all.

I think Thumpers’ father read the passage from Ephesians 4:29-31 for the Rabbit family’s morning devotions that day in 1942, and Mrs. Rabbit found a life moment in which to reinforce Mr. Rabbit’s godly leadership

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The letter E Christianese post in my iBlog series is Thumperology at its best, because Thumper taught me to EDIFY.

Ephesians 4:29-31 says:

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Our words are very powerful. Stick and stones may break our bones…but words will forever hurt. I mentioned this in my letter B post concerning how the very words that come from our mouth speak blessing and cursing.

To edify means to instruct or improve morally. Edification is the act of guiding morally for improvement, to uplift another. How can we improve one another morally if we are wagging our tongues in gossip, spewing bitterness from a hard heart that hasn’t forgiven?

Father forgive me for times when I’ve lacked in the edifying department and help me to remember the lessons I learned from Thumper. If I can’t say somethin’ nice…

I’ll try harder to edify, how about you?