MY NEW NORM Podcast- S5 E14 / Rod Butler / Entertainment War on our Kids

MY NEW NORM Podcast- S5 E14

Guest: Rod Butler- Filament City Media

Episode: Entertainment War on our Kids

We’re living in a time where the challenges facing our children go far beyond the headlines. This isn’t just cultural, political, or social—it’s a spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation. From the media they consume to the values they’re taught, the pressure is relentless. But there is hope. We’re called to stand, to equip, and to fight—not with fear, but with truth, love, and discernment.

My guest is Rod Butler- Filament City Media. Stay tuned as we uncover what’s really happening, why it matters, and how we can protect and prepare our kids for the world they’re growing up in. 
This is one episode you won’t want to miss.”

Resources:
Rod Butler-
www.filamentcity.com

 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:01

This is Barry Scott Young, your host on the My New Norm podcast. We all have our stories of pain and challenges, and it is my hope that these episodes will provide and curve. Remember to follow, listen, and share with those two. There's a war going on. The battlefield isn't over to the bottom you think I think in the cartoon.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Our kids cannot protect themselves. We need to do it. That's our job as adults. And everybody who's remaining silent on this issue is helpful what's happening to the kids.

SPEAKER_08: 1:59

Bad stuff ends up in good stuff. Like where most of it's good, but a little bit of it is bad. And I came up with a phrase, it's like the dog do in the pizza. Okay? So that's really bad. That's like the worst thing you can find in your pizza, and you might not even see it. And it doesn't permeate through the entire thing. It's just there. I thought I need to keep my eye on what's going on in movies. Parents drop their kids off at the movies. Maybe the kid doesn't even realize what they did see, but a seed was planted that doesn't grow beautiful flowers. It's gonna grow weeds that could be destructive or self-destructive.

SPEAKER_03: 2:41

Well, I want to welcome Rod Butler to the episode today. One of the most creative human beings I know. Um, and if that's not enough, he had a most creative dad. That was uh John K. Butler, that in the late 40s to the 60s, he was part of classic Western movies and um spy novels, and one of the creative geniuses in Hollywood. But he didn't know his dad or what he did, I think, until later. A lot of that DNA still lives in Rod because that's what Rod does. He's creative, he writes stories, he produces uh radio, uh book, everything. So today, um, I want to first welcome Rod. Rod, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_08: 3:46

Oh, doing great. Thanks for having me on. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03: 3:49

I am concerned. Um, I do not have little kids in the house anymore of really the entertainment war that's on our kids today, entertainment today that's aimed to our kids, to attract them, to engage them, to have fun with them, but then they insert something that's kind of a um stab that's gonna be there a long time and they begin to build on it. So let's get into Rod. Rod, let's start with you and then maybe transition into cartoons.

SPEAKER_08: 4:36

Sure, sure. Well, uh you said it well when you said entertainment aimed at kids, because uh aim is implies a weapon, and that's really what's going on is kind of a warfare for our kids and to pollute them with things that are popular. Um I i I always look back to this uh to 1995. I was sitting in a movie theater and I was getting to ready to watch the movie Toy Story. Now that was the first full-length computer generated film, and I'm watching this. That was the first one that was full length. And I remember I had seen the trailer and I thought, what? That looks so real. What's going on how is that being done? Uh, how did Buzz Lightyear and his his visor is clear? It can't be a cartoon, anyway. Sitting in there, been blown away. I thought this is this is a landmark at this time, and it was because so many things now are computer generated. But what disappointed me in Disney, which I had known Disney for all of their fun movies that our kids had gone to see and everything, right? But there was an off-color remark. It was only one that I caught, and it was it was kind of an innuendo that would slip by a parent, even maybe slip by a kid. Um but it really bothered me, and I was just stunned. And when I was a youth pastor, um, for a while, I used to talk about the way that the bad stuff ends up in good stuff, like where most of it's good, but a little bit of it is bad. And I came up with a phrase, it's like the dog do in the pizza. Okay, so that's really bad. That's like the worst thing you can find in your pizza, and you might not even see it, and it doesn't permeate through the entire thing, it's just there, and it becomes a thing, and you'll you'll say, Well, I'm not ever eating that again. And and so I thought I need to keep my my eye on what's going on in movies, um, especially Disney, because that now there's a lot of other dream works and so forth. But fast forward to 2009, a movie that I really dearly love called Up from Disney Pixar, which was the story of Carl Fredrickson, this old man whose wife passes away. Um and I didn't I didn't find anything bad in it until I I told a friend of mine, I said, You've got to go see this movie. It's just so great. And he came back after the weekend and said, I went to Up. Why did you tell me to go see that? I I was so depressed. I said, Well, wait, see, I missed it. What part of it was depressing? He goes, Well, the part where Ellie dies, I was brokenhearted, and my parents are passed away. So I thought, okay, here's another area where they spent a lot of time on a really difficult, not just heart-touching, but heart-wrenching kind of a thing that kids are forced to watch. And so, and then it and then it started. The other example I'll give is uh uh Finding Nemo was a very popular movie. Finding Dory was a sequel to that that came out in 2016. And I'm very observant, so I just watch everything that's on the screen. And at one point in this movie, there were two girls that walked by pushing a baby baby carriage, and it was quick. And I had to go back later to my computer and find it because it was an innuendo, but it was what you just called a stab. It wasn't just a oh, isn't that cute, or hey, what does that? Well, maybe it's just too no, it implied something further, and I think that's where when things really began going downhill.

SPEAKER_03: 8:38

Well, you have kept your eye on the industry for a long time because you have been in the kids' world um for a long time, and I appreciate that commitment. Um, it's not just cartoons, um, and it's not just hopefully I catch it. It's now it's more blatant and it's more um indoctrinating. Um, it's real blatant now. Well, what about kids' books? You would think that uh things that are being published are gonna help parents and families to help their kids learn about things in a very fun way, but where are books today?

SPEAKER_08: 9:29

You know, that's a really good point. Uh I was on the radio with uh KCBI in Dallas Fort Worth as Bongo Rod on the Coconut Hut Radio Show, and uh we gave away a lot of stuff, and there were a lot of books for kids. I don't know why this these things have dried up, but they have just dried up. And in and instead of a whole bunch of things appearing online, you've got to hunt down these old things, and there are some new things, but you just don't know which, based on the cover of the book, which way it's gonna go. So it gets back to this frontline warfare thing that's going on. And I don't think it's a stretch to say that the devil is involved. That sounds a little uh sudden, but if you look at Ephesians chapter six, there's Paul said, We're wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and those are in a domain that we don't see, but it's nonetheless very real and it's it's holding things back and it's allowing things to come forward that kids are able to see without without the movie poster looking like it would have something like that. Parents drop their kids off at the movies, come out, maybe the kid doesn't even realize what they did see, but a seed was planted that doesn't grow beautiful flowers, it's gonna grow weeds that could be destructive or self-destructive, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 11:03

Well, when you think of um books, uh I just saw a uh video, I think it was in Canada, where during a certain a church service, they brought the kids up for like a little story time in front of the congregation. And uh maybe you saw it, and she began to read a story about the gay parade and the illustrations that were cartoonish, but they showed some of them in the parade were naked, and they were just reading the story, like, isn't that funny? You know, just normalizing things. And I I flipped, you know, but it's everywhere. Well, what's at stake when you talk about our cartoons or books or movies?

SPEAKER_08: 11:59

Yeah, I think it's going to start small and be a something that in intrudes and places itself in their life, and then it's going to expand. Um Paul says in Galatians, you know, a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. And I thought that is so true, that something starts small and then and the kids in that library or in that church might might have looked at those images and it didn't register. And that's sort of the that's the good and bad mixture right at that right at that pivotal point. They're going, oh well, I'm naked, so I guess other people can be. Okay, well, maybe other people are laughing, so maybe oh, it's okay. So it gets a green flag and it and it in 11 is placed into the lump, the dough. And that's going to change. And uh, I loved that statement. Kids are like wet cement. You know, we've all walked down a sidewalk, maybe in our own neighborhood, and you look, and there's there's dog prints that just went, you know, and those are in the cement, right? The dog didn't know it, people didn't know it. It was wet. There was no marker for just my illustration, anyway. But it's lasting, and you can't just go in there and sand that off or fill it up, or it's something that's placed. And that's I think what's a challenge for us as parents and guardians and pastors and teachers, and however, we're involved with the younger generation and teens, is to stand strong and kind of shine a light on what's going on. With you know, we're making a big deal out of nothing, but but it's a slow-growing fungus and it's dangerous.

SPEAKER_03: 13:58

Well, you mentioned there's a much bigger assignment, and so when you look at what we're saying, it's not just one uh half a second part in a movie for kids or one page uh description in a book, it's all of these things together, it's a drip, drip, drip, drip, drip kind of uh sensation. You and I would be amazed uh to know the real numbers, but what would you say uh is a five through eight year old spending with media a day?

SPEAKER_08: 14:42

What I got from USA Today was four hours a day with that just translating out to uh 30 hours, just under 30 hours a week. But I really think that's a conservative You know it is. And that was from 2025, but I think it's a very it's a conservative, maybe they're playing it safe to get keep their readers or something. But it the fact is that it's so immersive what a kid watches on their little phone, they're just they're in it and they're they're with it. Um and then there's interactivity now where they're not just watching the video, well, they could make a video and they can put in that some of the things they saw just because they they're funny, and and kids, I think it's a universal to timeless thing that kids want to be accepted. They they want to be funny, they want to walk with the cool crowd, so they want affirmation, they want to fit in, they want to be on the cutting edge of stuff. Now that it's not just something you might see passing by a magazine stand, now it's on your phone, and there seem to be more and more ways that even blockers things are slipping past, and the kid wants is not trying to be dirty or negative or anti-gospel, they just want to be accepted, they just want friends and they want to be cool. So it's it's a it's a tough place today for kids.

SPEAKER_03: 16:15

And there's a lot of you know, predators that use um tick tock and all that to pretend to be a child or starts messaging and communicates and contacts. We as parents know the the dangers of that. Um so we live in a very um bizarre time. Everything's on the increase, and everything that we may have been dealing with as a high schooler, now the preschooler deals with it because it goes down, down, down, down. So I am uh concerned for our homes and our families. Um, why don't we talk about some parental response uh to what we've talked about, maybe some of the guardrails and guidance that we could give to our parents?

SPEAKER_08: 17:20

Well, I think as much as possible, the parent needs to be in there, like you just brought up. We used to just say, hey, go watch the TV.

SPEAKER_03: 17:29

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 17:30

And that's okay because it was flintstones, you know, something fun. So but now it's not like that. So I think you have to be hands-on and you have to get into your kids' world. One good thing, uh thinking about to your point about practical stuff, simple action to take. Most of our media now is not live broadcast, unless a football game or something. Most of it is sitting there waiting to be engaged. You start it, you can pause it. Now that didn't exist back in our day as kids, you couldn't just pause it, go get your breakfast, because you know, Mom, Captain Kangaroo, I'm gonna miss it.

SPEAKER_03: 18:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_08: 18:11

So you don't miss it, you pause it. So I think that could be a place where a parent could say, Hey, let's pause this for just a second, we'll get back to it. And then gently, carefully, hey, what do you think about that which you just saw? I think I think you want to ask questions, which is instead of, I mean, my my thing is I'm gonna tell them that that wasn't in my day, we didn't have that, and you can't be watching that. And we are gonna put Captain Kangaroo back on because we're, you know, you've got to come in kind of gently, wisely. Scripture says be wise as serpents, gentle as doves. I'm not advocating snakes because I hate them. But you come you come in wisely and say, hey, and you ask questions to get them to talk back. What did you see in that? Did you notice anything? Did what about that? You know, so that they when you click back to to continue, the child feels like they noticed something, then they understand how that may this may not be something we watch after this, or they they see the value themselves, and they feel like they almost came up with it themselves.

SPEAKER_03: 19:25

So what you're saying is really with our kids is to begin to teach media discernment, yes, uh, rather than banning everything, yes, and everything is bad.

SPEAKER_09: 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 19:39

Um, as soon as you say it's bad when we're not looking, they want to see it um more intently, you know, or or they'll hide it. Um so that's kind of a crazy thing. Well, you know, you almost as a family, you have to first ask the question, we as a family, what are our values and our standards? What are we gonna be um allowing to come into this home? You you you really have to as a parent, either single or both together, have to come to that agreement first. If you do not have that grid, it's it's gonna be really messy. So what would you say to that?

SPEAKER_08: 20:34

Yeah, I think I think you have to um probably spend some time if you even if you had to stop the show that you and your child are watching, then when they're in bed and asleep, go back and and run that show again and check it out for yourself. Um and if you have to go back then later and say, Hey, we're not gonna watch that anymore, well then you have to think, okay, well, what are you gonna watch? Um and this is where I I wanted to give a shout out to um my friend Dr. Ted Baer, who was uh um alive about the time my dad, he's a he's an older man, not as old as my dad would be now, but he he loved westerns and he loved movies. And he started something called moveguide.org. Moveguide.org. And and and for years, decades, he has been reviewing movies from a Christian perspective and and from an educated, like Hollywood perspective, saying, here okay, this this movie definitely given it this kind of a rating. I don't suggest it, but hey, here's two others that might substitute and you might enjoy. He has he has a heart for Hollywood, Dr. Ted Bear, and he's written several books that I would recommend. His name is Ted Bear. Bear is spelled B-A-E-H-R. And I got to interview him, or he talked to me and was just really impressed with how brilliant he is. And he has uh every year he has movie guide awards, which is an answer to the Academy Awards. And and he does have just clean films, they may not be evangelistic, but they're clean. And so all of that is on his website, including reviews of of recent things that have come out. And so that that's a great resource if you if you look online. Uh there's something called Yippie TV, uh, Y-I-P-P-I-E, Yippie T V, and Yippi all the old Christian shows for kids, the newer ones. I think they mix in some stuff that there's nothing, there's not gonna be anything bad. There might just be just educational, but nothing bad. There's minnow mino. Um, there's pure flix. I think came out soon after Netflix as a Christian response. Netflix, there's Pure Flix. Um, so and there's there's others like that that I would say.

SPEAKER_03: 23:17

Yeah, I think there's one called Me TV. It has the collection of all the old stuff that you and I grew up on, McHill's Navy and all those, um, and probably your dad's movies too, you know. Yeah, and that's kind of a great alternative. What's really sad is when you think of Hallmark movies, you think of wholesome. Recently, they decided to be all woke and now have inappropriate relationships within the movies. Um, I think that's why Great America um exists now because a lot of the actors from Hallmark were not happy about that and their stance. So they moved to this uh Great America. I think that's a great response, you know. Don't spend your time, you know, attacking, just recreate what what's good, you know. So what you're saying is there's a there's definitely some alternatives. While you were talking, I had a little thought go through my brain. Um it would be good for parents um to develop a conversation with other parents. Maybe a once a month we're gonna hit coffee or um whatever, meet for lunch and talk about um things we have learned or things that we had issues with that we could share it and talk, and that's a support group that is going to encourage you and your family and maybe educate you on things that you didn't know.

SPEAKER_08: 25:13

Oh man, I'm all over that. I think that's such a great idea. You know, the church is such a great place to go for refuge, to go for instruction, and and and to go for connectivity to other believers. Um one thing I think that's really improved in the church world, because you and I were both on church staff for a while, yeah, is there's more attention to children's ministry and more attention to youth ministry. I mean, 20 years ago, you know, it was all about the adults. Take the kids off, and and and someone will read them a story out of the Bible. But now kids have their own activities, and it's not now, but I mean it's been growing to where there's oftentimes in a church there's a really cool little section that where you take your kids and it looks great. And the kids are going, man, look at this. You know, there's screens up and stuff is happening, and then they hold on to those kids and they then hold on to the youth because it's amped up to more youth coolness, which music is gonna be more cool. So, but especially for parents like what you're saying, and I I did I neglected to mention focus on the family since we're talking about family. They are online still and they're still producing great stuff. A place called Right Now Media has all kinds of books and videos, right now media, and also for youth, especially group.com. Group used to be a publisher, you might have used some of the students in your your time. Right, but they're still out there and still doing great things. But that one-on-one, parent to parent, over a cup of coffee, yeah, there might be some tears. There might be open up some opportunities where they can really help each other, encourage each other.

SPEAKER_03: 27:05

You're right. Um the exposure to pornography has reached a new depth of low.

SPEAKER_05: 27:15

Experts say there's another pandemic, a silent one, happening right in our homes.

SPEAKER_01: 27:21

Today, they don't even have to have to sneak to find anything. It's there. It can actually be found on Snapchat, it can be f found on Instagram.

SPEAKER_05: 27:29

An unspoken pandemic. Children exposed to pornography on the devices we give them.

SPEAKER_01: 27:36

It's on the school bus, it's in the lunchroom. It can, in fact, be anywhere where a child has a device that's hooked up to the internet.

SPEAKER_05: 27:43

It's happening earlier in some instances while kids are still in elementary school.

SPEAKER_02: 27:48

I think a lot of parents are naive, thinking, well, he's only eight or he's only nine or ten. Well, the research shows us now that boys are being exposed at about the age of 10 to pornography, and girls are being exposed at about maybe 11 or 12 to pornography. And I think parents don't want to believe that because it's so frightening.

SPEAKER_05: 28:06

The experts agree, porn isn't going anywhere. So it's on parents to protect their children.

SPEAKER_03: 28:13

Where a child that can't even prepare snacks for himself has been exposed blatantly. So that would be a conversation with the parents of what do I do? You know, I I feel so alone in this, and and they're not. So, yes, a support group would be excellent, and uh the alternatives that you mentioned will put them in the show notes. I try to list links that are resources that will help the listener to further educate themselves. So we're gonna do that as well.

SPEAKER_08: 28:56

There is a group called Hollywood Prayer Network that I've discovered, and they are forging into the Hollywood world, actors, producers, directors, and a lot of them hold those kind of positions as well. And they hold prayer rallies in in Hollywood, and they are just launching more and more prayer, it's a prayer outreach for Hollywood. And uh I also have noticed that a lot of actors who are popular in movies are stepping back, like you mentioned a bit ago, and saying, I'm not gonna be part of that anymore. I think I'm gonna be part of this movie because uh it's it's just healthier, it's more biblically based and so forth. So there is kind of a dawning light, in my opinion, within the the world of Hollywood and all that production and everything that's going on that that is good and that is Bible oriented. So I think a lot of Hollywood. Is turning a corner and coming to the Lord and finding meaning and purpose in their life and taking a stand for Jesus Christ and the Bible. And that's encouraging.

SPEAKER_03: 30:12

Like you said, there's kind of a positive note that families aren't powerless. Yeah. They can get guidance and they can even create their own traditions in what we've been talking about here. Yeah. I I want you to talk more on your Captain Flashlight series. It is so cool. It's probably for the young reader. Why don't you, from the author's and creator's heart, tell us about Captain Flashlight?

SPEAKER_08: 30:49

Yes, yes. Thank you, Barry. You know, I was born at an early age. And yet, no, I can't help having a little comedy in there. So, true story. I guess I was seven or eight years old, and we were driving around with my mom in this little town in Southern California. And I saw a searchlight, how it panned across the building. And I thought, man, look at that light. You know, that's so cool. How it's just flashing all against the windows and then it's gone. Truth is, it was like a used car business or something. Because we drove past, and here's this big. Do you remember those searchlights? Oh, yeah. There's a huge kind of metal drum, and you can't even look at the light that's beaming out of it. So that sunk into me. And later, when I was doing a radio show as a what, I guess a 30-year-old man, I thought, I need a superhero. What could his power be? You know, it can't be like Batman, can't be like Superman, can't be like Aquaman, you know, all these slots are used. Hey, what if instead of carrying some kind of weapon, he had a flashlight? Okay, and what if a flashlight kind of had superpower? Okay, maybe I'm getting somewhere. So that's how that came about. And then when I went on the radio, I developed this world called Filament City, and with Captain Flashlight with a belt full of flashlights, but they all look the same. So when he's wanting to do his, you know, strong beaming light, or he's wanting to do his shine shield, he picks the wrong one. So there's comedy because he's a little bit bumbling, but that plays on the idea that we're not perfect as believers, but God uses us anyway. So then came along his young lady, uh Niani Lelooney, who's a brilliant scientist, and she drives the skylighter, which is the flying flashlight, and Professor Luminous, they have an older man, and there's a dog in there named Blinky. And I I it's getting I've I'm trying working on an animated series. That's a bit more to put that together. But I thought, okay, in the meantime, what's the best movie-making facility in the world? It's the brain of a kid reading the story and imagining everything that I'm talking about. It's really probably more successful than a cartoon. So I wrote my first one and it went out there, uh darknotized, and got a good response. And then I did Lampshaded, which is about Louis the Lampshade, which kind of sounds like this, and Ed Chandelera, which sounds something like this, Lewis. Stop talking in this voice. It's very irritating. So, lampshade, what he wants to do is put a lampshade over the earth because his his his eye his vision is very weak and things are too bright for him. So he has a reason, but he goes on to do something very villainous and incredible and impossible, dropping a lampshade over the earth. And then the third one just came out, which is called Luminized, which which really is the grand finale of the whole trilogy. And um I got I got a letter, an email back from a mom who said, My son has all three books now. He got the third one, but he had to read the first two to set up for the third one. And I'm starting to almost cry, you know. This just means so much to a writer. And his favorite character is Blinky the dog. And I thought, what? I mean, Blinky does have power and he has a beam that shines out of his helmet. But I always thought of him, just make sure you include Blinky. Don't forget Blink. And she said, He he he runs around the room on all fours. He's Blinky. Now I'm sure he won't grow up running around on all fours. Right. But it just it just touched me, and also that he was laughing a lot, and that they were going to the end of every chapter, those reflective questions, reflection questions that um bring in a Bible verse and just a light-hearted kind of reflection. Hey, what could I do to be more like Christ in this? What should I do to help this person? What should I do to be more friendly? So I don't know. In a in a long short story, that's how that all came about. It is I, Captain Flashlight, and Blinky, my Luma Dog.

SPEAKER_04: 35:16

And Dani Miami, known as Lumatron.

SPEAKER_08: 35:19

Hey, remember when we were lamitated?

SPEAKER_04: 35:23

Remember when we were dark mat?

SPEAKER_08: 35:27

And now the pizza bots are all out of control. And we faced our dark duplicates the last night. Crash Dark and Dark Bark.

SPEAKER_04: 35:39

And I face my evil opposite Gloomatron. Ew.

SPEAKER_08: 35:44

And Globot must fight Gloombot. Yes, it's all here and more in Luminized.

SPEAKER_04: 35:54

The third book in the Captain Flashlight trilogy.

SPEAKER_08: 35:59

Yes, the Bright Fighters and the Dark Doers are back with the biggest adventure of all. With reflection questions for scripture learning and godly living. And don't forget the Lumatronic coloring page, the completion of the Captain Flashlight trilogy. Luminize, Luminize. Kids and parents love Captain Flashlight. And Luminize, the biggest and brightest story of them all, is now available at Amazon.com, along with a few other books. From Filament City Media, shining God's light everywhere. The imagination. So that book is out there too for families to enjoy and ah okay.

SPEAKER_03: 37:07

I'm gonna put you on the spot. Um grab your book, any book, if it be flashlight or the poem book, it's probably in your room somewhere there. All right, give us a sample of uh some of your writings, uh the poetic, imaginative ones.

SPEAKER_08: 37:30

Alrighty, so here's three about vegetables. The tomato is. The tomato is a plump red round. When bitten makes a slushy sound. It can spurt, dribble, gush, and flow. Is it then ketchup? Not sure. Maybe so. Spinach, I'm afraid, has no rhyming word. Finish your spinach is just plain absurd. It's leafy and tart, not the best taste to me. I'd rather watch Popeye gulp it down on TV. A reference to an old cartoon show, so Yes, yes. Of asparagus? I'm sorry, I have nothing to say. When the dish was passed to me, I turned it away. It looked spiky and slimy, withered and old timey. But many years later, the past is past, and it's today. I've turned a new leaf past the asparagus this way. This is called every day amazing. Yes, you can make every day amazing if you choose every day the right fields for grazing, fields of sunlight and green summer grasses, provide warmth and life, and joy that surpasses. Choose the shepherd who holds all tomorrows. Follow his lead through shadows and sorrows. Don't follow the promise of two sweet surprises. Remember the wolf and his deceitful disguises. The good shepherd offers a less traveled path with protection and provision, his rod and his staff. Goodness and mercy will replace grief and strife with an overflowing cup and an everlasting life.

SPEAKER_03: 39:55

Wow, what a gift. Where can they get some of your resources?

SPEAKER_08: 40:02

So, two places. You can go on Amazon and just type in Rod Butler, and about your third scroll down will be the book Luminized. You could also go to Amazon and go to books and put in Rod Butler, and it will take you to my books. Um, and then my website is filamentcity.com. Filament is a kind of funny old word because now we have light bulbs without those filament wires. Filamentcity.com, and you can see more information on all the books, and uh there's a blog there, and just some just some fun stuff. Man, puppets. Wow. Because I'm on YouTube as Rod the Puppet Guy. So that's a fun place to go, not just to laugh, but to make your own puppets and make other people laugh.

SPEAKER_03: 40:53

I have a question to ask here at the close.

SPEAKER_08: 40:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 40:57

I would think that there is a listener that's a parent of younger kids completely overwhelmed, feeling like a failure, with the aftermath of some of the media that has penetrated the home and the exposure. Um how could you encourage them today?

SPEAKER_08: 41:31

Well, the first thing I would say is to encourage them to pray, to go to the Lord, get your Bible, focus on him completely because he's good and he's strong and he never fails. You know, he's he's the light that that dawns over the darkness. So, yes, there may be darkness existing and points where we all as parents we all have failed. We know it, we're we're aware of it. Probably could recall the instances. Oh, I wish I hadn't done that, oh, I wish that hadn't happened. It did. And so pray to the Lord and just ask for forgiveness, ask for Him to empower you and stay in that place of prayer. And you've and you've got to sort of force yourself to the bright side of life and not the dark side. And I I have friends, and I'm sure you do too, who children have gone away that they never expected, and it looks hopeless, but that's a lie. Things that look done and you'll never be redeemed can be redeemed and can be changed. You just have to you have to pray, you have to spend time with God, and you have to forgive yourself, and you have to hold on to hope. And the last point I would say is you have to be patient because I I've always wondered when God answers prayers, maybe there's three possibilities He's going to say. He's going to say yes, he's going to say no, he's going to say wait. And that's like not a bad option, wait, because his for something to really make a turn, for a big ocean liner to go from straight to going this way, that takes time to move that big thing and make it go in a new direction. But all things are possible with God, and don't ever let go of that.

SPEAKER_03: 43:44

Wow. Well, I want to thank you for coming into the studio and having a conversation about the war that is uh aggressively attacking our kids. Until we have that opportunity to speak again. Uh thank you for our time today. You might want to miss it on its way to its green near view. This is very scoty. Your host on my new door.