I'd Like to Thank...

Raise your hand if you are sick of awards shows. I know I am. Who really cares? The Golden Globes, The Screen Actors Guild Awards, The Academy Awards – all honoring basically the same actors in the same movies. Accolades are fine, but isn’t this overkill? I was perfectly content watching Oscars presented to deserving recipients. It was rather exciting to see the stars of the current flock of movies in their finery while listening to them accept their prizes with gratitude. Once a year.

Now it’s this red carpet and that red carpet and who is wearing the ugliest dress? Who’s snubbing whom? How much did the jewelry cost? Who cares? is what I ask. Isn’t this just a little too much back-slapping?

Sometimes I look at these shows through the eyes of a little child who doesn’t have enough to eat. What must she think? The sheer indulgence. The waste. I feel the same way when I watch certain commercials on TV. One year I remember a commercial where a woman basically demanded a diamond for Christmas from her husband. She didn’t even ask! She expected it. What does that say to the woman struggling to keep food on her family’s table? We live in a weird time. No two ways about it.

I suppose every age has those who take more than they give, who think of themselves before others. It’s moments like this when I am proud of families who sacrifice for one another. Where they make due with less. They aren’t me-oriented. They know what’s real, and don’t have to ask, “What would Jesus do?” because they just do it. Day after day. And nobody hands them statues of naked gold men. Well, OK, maybe Oscar’s not naked. But you get the idea.

Look what Jesus did. And look what happened to Him. He didn’t receive much praise in His day, just as we moms don’t receive much praise in our day, but we all know where Jesus is now. And isn’t that where we’d like to be at the end of our days? It’s where I hope to be. So let’s do as my dad says, and “keep plugging away.” No fancy dresses, no walks down the red carpet, no statuettes. Just grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, tending, loving. God sees all that we do. When we think we can’t work another second at that job, remember that God is watching us, applauding us for our efforts to help others, and is writing our names down in that big book of His. Remember: It’s God’s opinion that counts. Better start rehearsing that acceptance speech!