Confession time...

I have the worst guilty pleasures...they really make poor Melanie's eyes roll. Two guilty pleasures that have this effect that I've re-discovered lately are Saturday's Warriors and My Turn on Earth. I've recently downloaded them on my iPod, and have been introducing the girls to these favorite stories and am so glad that they too are catching the bug.

I know why I love these two musicals. I remember seeing My Turn on Earth when I was a little kid, gosh I have no idea how young I was. There was a touring company or something that made its way to Michigan for some reason and my parents decided to take us. And I just really loved the music and the story for some reason, it just really appealed to me. Even today when I hear the music I just really enjoy it. And there's some great Gospel messages in there - if you can bear to sit through some of the cheese. Let me simply say I get really happy to hear the girls singing "My Turn on Earth".

In fact, as we were driving to Utah last week I put on My Turn on Earth and as I was listening I think I relearned something that I think is a real truth that I knew, but hadn't thought about for a while. In the song where Jesus and Satan are presenting their plans, and Satan is saying how he wants people to follow him, I think it really jumped out to me that God wants to create little gods, not little followers. If he simply wanted a bunch of mindless children he would have picked Satan's plan because on its face value it makes some sense and is the safe approach. But I think Satan had it wrong - God was willing to put us all through this mortal existence and the tremendous risk associated with it if it meant that we would receive the opportunity to be like God himself. It also made me wonder what kind of glory and power come with being like God that made him willing to risk so much.

I think Saturday's Warrior is a Kennedy favorite across the board. Again, I think I must've seen it when I was little because we all knew the story and music when one of us spied the VHS video on the Huron Valley Ward library shelf. So we took it home and watched it so much...and I don't think we ever returned that video. We would watch it, and sing it, and simply enjoy it. Again, the show is really cheesy and has a low production value to it. But when I think about the messages - the importance of an eternal family, the challenges and temptations of mortality, the great joy when those who are lost are found - it's a beautiful telling of the Plan of Salvation.

So there you have it...I've confessed that I just really love these shows. : > )