Meet the Robinsons - Keep Moving Forward

Meet the Robinsons – Keep Moving Forward

The end of a year is here. Now it is time to look back and see what has happened in the past year. Was 2013 a good year? Did you succeed at your goals? Did good things happen to make you happy like marriages, births and new friendships? Was 2013 a bad year? Did you fail at your goals? Did you suffer a loss of a loved one or have financial problems? Either way it is time to, Keep Moving Forward! Out of the past of success or failure onto new challenges and heights.

I’ll not give a description of this movie here as I’ve already done so in another post here on Pixie’s Faith. In that post I talked about being adopted into the family of God. In this I’m going to talk about another lesson to learn from the movie, “Keep Moving Forward.”

Here is a link to the past post if you wish to learn more about the movie:

http://pixiesfaith.blogspot.com/2013/12/meet-robinsons-adopted-into-gods-family.html

I will restate one important plot point of the movie, “Keep Moving Forward”. All Lewis wants to do is look back but he finds peace and happiness once he realizes he needs to keep moving forward. Once he stops looking to the past for solutions to his hurt he finds freedom to move on and grow into the person he truly wants to be.

The catch phrase “Keep Moving Forward” comes from a quote of Walt Disney

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long.

We Keep Moving Forward, opening up new doors and doing new things,

because we’re curious . . . and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

~ Walt Disney ~

It is also a lesson taught in the Bible as well. God does not wish us to dwell in the past and let it stop us from growing and enjoying. Learn the lessons of the past but don’t stay there. Realize God has plans for us and they are for our good not our demise.

Lewis needed to forget the past hurt of being abandoned by his mother and move forward so he could accept the love of the family he finally came to have. Just like Lewis there are good things ahead if we leave the past behind.

Isaiah 45:18-19

Forget the former thinks; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up: do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has call me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Lewis felt lost, alone and like he was wondering in the wilderness. Why? Because he was focused on the past, the loss of his mother. Once he let that go he was able to move forward.

Goob is an example of what happens when you hold to tightly onto the past and do not move forward. He was so stuck in what happened when he fell asleep and missed the ball that it destroyed him and he tried to destroy others. He was so stuck he did not see that people were reaching out to him and moving on even if he did not. (Example is he said the team rejected him after the game when in fact there is a scene where a boy asks Goob to come over to play.) We miss the truth when we look through the dirty windows of our past.

God forgives and forgets our past mistakes and failures. We need to do the same. When I say forget I do not mean act like they never happened at all. Hold onto lessons learned from them but let go of the hurt and shame. If God can forgive us we need to forgive others we need to do the same. When we forgive others we are letting go of the hurt but not necessarily the lesson learned by the actions that cause the hurt. You can forgive but not fully trust someone. Trust needs to be rebuild. Use wisdom, not everybody you forgive needs to be treated as if nothing ever happened.

Remember this, God has plans for YOU and they are plans to bless you now, next year and beyond.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Sometimes those plans take us through a dark patch in life but God’s plans are always for our good. Just like Lewis had to be separated from his mother to find the family that was just right for him. Remember God is for you not against you.

Also remember the sun shines and the rain falls on the good as well as the evil person. In other words things just happen! Not everything is God playing chess with your life and moving you like a piece. Some things are natural consequences to your actions and others are just “life” happening. Either way God is still there to see you through.

I pray 2013 was a good year for you. If not I pray you see God was there for you and with you through it. I pray that 2014 is a better year for you than 2013 no matter how 2013 was.

May the God of peace be with you in 2014 and beyond.

Meet the Robinsons - Adopted into God's Family

Meet the Robinsons – Adopted into God’s Family

Meet the Robinsons is the story of a young boy that was left on the door step of an orphanage as a baby. Lewis is about to turn 13 and feels that his chances of being adopted are gone because he will now be a teenager.

Lewis is a very intelligent, overall positive young man who finds joy in creating things. At first he attempts to attract adoptive parents by showing them how smart and creative he is. He tries to make a “gun” to spread peanut butter and jelly on bread with a hat that can toast the bread for the perfect PB&J sandwich. This backfires when the device jams and then shoots peanut butter and jelly all over the room where prospective parents are meeting him. The sticky mess covers the couple that was interested in adopting Lewis. The husband starts to turn red and then swells up! He is allergic to peanuts!!! He is rushed off to the hospital and Lewis is left thinking he is a failure.

When Lewis sees that he has had hundreds of interviews with perspective parents and he is about to turn 13 he decides to make a device that will look into the memories of the human mind. He wants to look at his memories of the night his mother dropped him off at the orphanage in hopes of being able to identify her. He becomes obsessed with finding his mother and dreams of being re-united with her and living a happy life. He gives up on being adopted.

A man with a Bowler Hat shows up at the science fair where Lewis is going to show off his new device. The Bowler Hat Guy tampers with Lewis’s Memory Scanner and makes if fail. A young boy, Wilber Robinson about the same age as Lewis shows up and tries to stop the Bowler Hat Man. He then tries to encourage Lewis to fix the Memory Scanner.

It turns out that Wilber is from the future and he lies to Lewis in an attempt to get him to go forward in time to help him repair a time machine before his father, Cornelius comes home from work. While in the future Lewis is amazed by the creations that Wilber’s farther made. Lewis feels welcomed and in fact loved by the eclectic Robinson Family. There is Wilber, Grandpa Bud, Lucille, Franny, Cousin Tallula, Uncle Art, Aunt Billie, and Lizzy, Carl, Mildred and Uncle Dimitry and Uncle Spike (no one knows who they are really related too).

Lewis is amazed when someone brings out a peanut butter & jelly sandwich maker and it fails. Wilber asks Lewis to fix it. The repair does not work and the family applauds! They call it a spectacular failure. They are happy at attempts to make things. They say how wonderful to make something and fail because you learn more that way. Lewis feels like he fits right in.

Bowler Hat Guy steps in and makes things difficult for Lewis and Wilber. The Bowler Hat, names Doris is “alive” and helps Bowler Hat Man. In the end Bowler Hat Man steals the Memory Scanner and tries to pass it off as his own device. He does this to destroy Robinson Industry, a company started by Cornelius Robinson that has made a major impact on making the world a better place. Cornelius has a motto he lives by, “Keep Moving Forward.”

Bowler Hat Guy does win . . . temporarily. It seems that Doris, the “living hat” has been guiding him but Doris has nefarious plans of her own. It seems that Doris was created by Cornelius in the future and caused damage instead of doing good. Cornelius shut down Doris, or thought he had. Doris was out for revenge and had found an easy mark in Bowler Hat Guy to trick into helping her.

In the end Bowler Hat Guy turns out to be Lewis’ old roommate from the orphanage, Michael “Goob” Yagoobian. Goob holds a grudge against Lewis for keeping him awake the night before a big baseball game. Being tired Goob missed the big catch and lost the game because he fell asleep in the outfield! Lewis had keep him awake working on his Memory Scanner all night for the science fair the same day as the game.

Lewis finds out that in reality he was adopted and grew up to be Cornelius Robinson, the great inventor! In talking to his grown up self he is told that the invention that started it all was the Memory Scanner, his first invention that really worked.

Lewis shows Goob that Doris has tricked him and they stop Doris and correct the damage. Lewis forces Wilber to ask Goob to be part of the Robinson family. But, Goob is hurt and no longer having a direction for his life (his focus was to destroy Lewis/Cornelius before this) goes off sulking. Lewis goes back to his own time and fixes the Memory Scanner and runs off to the science fair, where he has been told he will meet people that are going to be important to his life. He stops on the way to see Goob at the ballgame. He shouts at him just at the right moment waking him up so he catches the ball! This changes Goob’s life and the way he looks at himself! At the science fair he meets Bud and Mildred who will adopt him and Franny who he will one day marry!

What are the Biblical points to learn from this movie? There are several.

·        We are all adopted by God and are His children joint heirs with Christ.

·        Keep Moving Forward! Keep a positive attitude and never stop trying.

·        Don’t let hate rule your life. You will find yourself directionless and lost.

·        Satan will do what he can to stop you from following God’s direction and being happy. You must make the choice to not listen to him.

I’m going to focus on how we are adopted by God for this post and at some later time I’ll come back and cover the other points.

Lewis is desperate to be adopted. He is looking to belong and fit someplace. When we feel lost we can turn to God for acceptance and belonging. John 3:16-18 “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He give His only Son, so that whoever believes on Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him. ¹⁸ He that believes on Jesus is not judge: those that have not believed have been judged already, because he has not believed on the name of the only Son of God.” John 1:12-13 says, “¹² But as many as receive Him, to them He gave the right to become the Children of God, even to those that believe on His Name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Just like many of us Lewis spent years looking for and trying to contrive a way to find a family, a place he felt he fit. God is there and just waiting for us to accept His offer to be part of His family. God does not mind if we make spectacular mistakes! He knows we are learning and growing. All God requires is we ask Him and accept His love. When we accept His love we will find freedom and encouragement and acceptance. We will see God wants us to try, fail and try again until we succeed.

What does it mean to be Joint Heirs with Jesus Christ? It means we are fully adopted members of the family of God with the inheritance, authority and responsibility as such. I believe it means we have the authority over Satan’s minions in the name and power of Jesus Christ. Does this mean we go looking for demons to battle? NO!!! It just means when we have to do battle we have the authority and power to win because our Daddy is there to help and empower us. Remember to read to the very end of the Bible, Satan LOSES big time! Just remind him of that when he tries to torment, trick, deceive and lead you astray. Remind him your Daddy will kick his butt and he has no authority over you!

The Royal status as a child of the King of Kings gives us a chance to see our importance to Him. No we are NOT the red-headed step children at the family reunion! We are fully adopted members of the family! It can and should give us the impetus to change and grow personally. It does not give us the right to be arrogant or self-centered. When we have someone tell us we are worthless we have the knowledge of our adoption to remind us we are not worthless! We are priceless! No matter what mess we make when we try to do something, God loves us. We deserve the best for ourselves! (Not always material things but spiritual/emotional.) We deserve to see ourselves as God does. We are the apple of His eye. In other words He cares for us so we should care about ourselves. This can help you have a reason to change bad habits such as smoking, drinking, doing drugs, over eating and just abusing your body and mind. It should also help you learn not to allow others to physically and emotionally abuse you. If God is your FATHER who has the right to abuse you?!?! Nobody!!!

So will you choose to join God’s family? All it takes is talking to God (praying) and telling Him you wish to be part of His family. Say you’re sorry for the wrongs you done. He will forgive and accept you without judgment.

Have questions? Feel free to email me at PrankingPixie@yahoo.com, leave a comment or better yet call your local Christian church for information. Does not matter if it is Four Square, Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran or a Vineyard Fellowship. It does not matter what the flavor of worship just find one that feeds you. As long as it preaches the Bible and Jesus as the only way it is on the right track. Just read the Bible for yourself and ask questions. Verify what the preacher is preaching. Don’t be afraid to check out several churches.

My Christmas book, “An Angel Remembers 25 Voices of Christmas” is available!!

This is a collection of 26 short Christmas stories that together bring the amazing events of Christ’s birth alive. It is my hope that this will help encourage families to spend 10-15 minutes a day together during the busy holiday season remembering the true reason for the season.

You can find it for ALL eReader formats and PDF at:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94784

For your Nook the link is:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-angel-remembers-25-voices-of-christmas-carolyn-hoagland/1106912931?ean=2940032802624

It is also available at the iTunes book store and many other ebook seller sites.

The only big site not carrying my book is Amazon.

You can download a Kindle version from Smashwords.com