God answers prayer. He does it wonderfully, beautifully and sometimes when we have faith smaller than a mustard seed.

Amazingly, my meeting with the Headteacher of the school was totally fabulous. Before I opened my mouth, he told me that the year 3 teachers had decided to change the literacy work to use Toy Story instead of Harry Potter because of my letter to them.

Then he said that he felt it was wise not to celebrate Halloween in the school, partly because of people’s religious views and partly because it wasn’t necessarily a good idea.

(Cut to me, open-mouthed and smiling.)

I thanked him and then I told him a little more about why I feel the way I do. It was great to have the chance to share what my faith means to me and explain what I want the boys to think about and why.

I told him that I strongly believe that the things we think about affect the way we feel and also affect our behaviour. He listened carefully and seemed very interested. I went on to explain that I believe in the supernatural and that some texts contain images that clearly ring true with my experience of it. I told him that some books show an unhealthy subtlety that doesn’t portray a clear line between good and evil and that I felt this was unkind to young children (and adults) and dangerous for them to think about.

I then went on to widen the field further…

That day, Sam had a reading book from school which I felt was far too violent. The story line was about a 9 year old cabin boy who sunk an axe into the forehead of a pirate. It was gruesome. Once we had read that passage I said we were not going to read any further. I didn’t want that kind of thing to embed itself into my little boy’s mind.

I put the book in my pocket and decided to share its contents with the Head. I read the passage to him.
” I used to be a teacher,” I said. “If a child in my class had written a story that contained these images, I would be very concerned about their mental state and certainly take the story to the Head. And yet, this is available in our school for anyone to read. I just want to ask this question: Are we ok with this?”

He thought for a moment before answering.
As he popped a post-it note into the page in question, he replied saying that he had not thought about it from that view-point before that it did concern him.

The meeting ended with him saying that he would speak to other teachers about the book and he thanked me for my time. I thanked him for the way he leads the school, for the fact that he had taken me seriously and for the way the staff had responded to my views. We exchanged a warm hand-shake and, I am sure, mutual respect.

I confess that on the way home, I was massively elated. I felt honoured for my position and not ridiculed. Whilst I sense he did not always agree with my views or share my reasons for them, he kept saying that they were reasonable and that I had a point.

I felt encouraged and uplifted that I had chosen to speak out.

I believe so strongly that what we read, see and experience has power. I know how quickly I can ‘talk myself up’ (or down) by the internal script I allow to play in my mind. I think images have double the effect. The enemy is about three things
1. Stealing
2. Killing
3. Destroying.
(read John 10:10 to see what I mean)

What does he steal? Firstly talent. He skews people towards the wrong things.
What does he kill? Dreams. If he can take those, he has secured our future is not a faith-filled one.
What does he destroy? Mainly and primarily our peace, joy and our trust that God has a perfect plan that we will enjoy being part of.

We all (if we love the Lord) have a responsibility when we produce ANYTHING – from food to adverts, from kids’ shows to stories – to guard that it meets the following criteria:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable””if anything is excellent or praiseworthy””think about such things.”

If it doesn’t, we must “out it.” At once.
Otherwise we allow the powers of darkness in. And I have prayed with enough people seeking deliverance to know where THAT leads.