The annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Oscar Awards, were last night in Hollywood. I did not watch as I had not seen any of the movies nominated. As they say down south, I didn’t “have a dog in the hunt”.

I did watch a movie this weekend that I can recommend to you. It is called, “The Ultimate Gift”. I don’t recall if this movie ever went into general release. If it did, it likely had a short showing and then went straight to the DVD rack. But that does not take away from the value of the story.

It is a story of a rich kid named Jason Stevens (Drew Fuller)whose wealthy grandfather Red Stevens (James Garner), dies and leaves Jason twelve tasks he must do to grow as a man and ultimately inherit the bulk of the estate. These tasks are called “gifts” and they eventually lead Jason to learn the real meaning of wealth.

It is a good story, a little trite and stretched in places but the foundation is sound. I would recommend it over any of the movies on last night’s list of Best Picture nominees. Watch it with your spouse and kids and then discuss ways to impart the “gifts” to your kids. It will make a good evening’s discussion.

Philippians 4:8 tells us to place our minds on the things that are noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy. That will filter out a lot of entertainment in the market place. It will also force us to make some hard decisions. Be careful before committing to such a list of standards. You could find yourself in an uncomfortable situation.

I find that self-censorship is the best approach to decisions we make about what we read or watch from today’s media. There is a lot of good material available to us for our education, information and entertainment. We just need to evaluate whether it makes us a better person before God for having spent time watching or reading. That choice has always been made best when we do it ourselves, based on the standard of God’s word.